ERCOT said Friday it has approved the retirement of Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s coal-fired Oklaunion Power Station in the Texas Panhandle.

The Texas grid operator said staff have completed a reliability analysis and determined that the plant is not required to support transmission system reliability. The ruling clears the way for Oklaunion to be decommissioned and permanently retired as of Oct. 1.

The 34-year-old, 650-MW plant’s ownership is split among utilities in both the ERCOT and SPP grids. AEP Texas owns a 54.69% interest in the plant. The other owners are the Brownsville Public Utilities Board (17.97%) in South Texas, PSO (15.62%) and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority (11.72%).

PSO notified ERCOT of its plans on Jan. 21. (See PSO Officially Retires Oklaunion Coal Plant.)

— Tom Kleckner