Duke Energy plans to delay retirement of the Gibson coal-fired power plant by three years. This is according to the utility’s latest 20-year plan. If the company does this, Duke will be the last investor-owned utility in Indiana to stop burning coal by 2010.
Scientists say coal needs to be drastically cut by 2030 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Gibson’s two coal units will be modified to burn both natural gas and coal and will be able to burn coal until 2038. Duke will also be postponed. We plan to add the majority of renewable energy by the mid-to-late 2030s.
Megan Anderson works with the Sierra Club of Indiana’s Beyond Coal campaign. He said Duke is setting its customers up for failure by retreating from its previous plan to phase out coal by 2035.
“It leaves them with higher bills. It makes them less prepared for climate change and they don’t have a reliable energy supply for the next 15 to 20 years.” Anderson said.
Since the utility’s last 20-year plan, the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed utilities to transition to clean energy by co-firing coal and natural gas, said Angeline Protogear, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy Indiana. said. That’s what the utility is aiming for with the Gibson plant.
At least in the short term, Protogear said Duke State needs more power sources that are not dependent on the weather, such as solar or wind power.
The utility expects electricity demand to increase in Indiana as businesses expand, data centers come online and people buy more electric vehicles. Protogear said regional transmission operators are now also requiring utilities to have additional energy available seasonally to ensure reliability.
“So you have to plan for resources that can be dispatched on demand, no matter the weather conditions. Renewable energy is very weather dependent,” she said.
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Protogear said Duke Energy owns more coal-fired power plants than any other investor-owned utility in Indiana and may be investing more in emissions regulations. Ta. These costs are passed on to customers and often take years to pay off.
But Anderson said other investor-owned utilities face similar constraints and are still moving rapidly away from fossil fuels. AES plans to phase out coal in 2025, followed by Centerpoint in 2027 and NIPSCO and Indiana-Michigan Power in 2028.
Anderson said Duke also made several mistakes that hurt customers, including cost overruns in building the Edwardsport coal gasification plant.
Many of Indiana’s utility customers are paying down debt on existing or retired coal-fired power plants while simultaneously paying for the construction of new renewable generation projects.
Three years ago, lawmakers created a pilot program to study how securitization could help customers reduce costs as CenterPoint Energy Inc.’s AB Brown coal-fired power plant retires early. Similar to refinancing a home, securitization allows customers to pay off coal-fired power plants over a longer period of time at lower interest rates, reducing utility bills. There were few updates on the pilot program other than a reduction in CenterPoint customers’ bills by about $5.
Protogear said Duke Energy’s plans could change if utilities are forced to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act.
Rebecca is an energy and environment reporter. Contact me at rthiele@iu.edu or follow me on Twitter. @beckythiele.
