Eastern Railroad Discussion > Dominion Power: Coal is 11% of our power, down from 55%

The Virginia based utility told energy analysts that coal now produces about 11% of the company's electric power down from 55%.  It expects its four highly automated and updated coal plants to remain operational for the forseeable future.  D took four other coal units off line earlier this year.

Exelon told the same conference that it has no plans to operate coal plants. It does not see a path for coal to achieve any economic viability.

This is significant because both companies were targets of a plan to increase the use of coal plant electricity by reducing federal regulations, allowing different heat rate standards, etc.  Both have mothballed plants that could be brought back on line.  And, at one time both companies were huge receivers of railroad hauled coal.

The right leaning Washington Examiner has a report from the conference.  The info about Dominion and Exelon is about half way down the article.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/daily-on-energy-trump-administration-sees-energy-storage-as-a-national-security-tool

>  D took four other coal units off line earlier this
>  year.
>

These units were actually already offline, they were placed on a cold standby status over a year ago only to be activated if other sources became unavailable. Since the Greenville County Power Station (natural gas) came online last December, plus various solar projects in Virginia came online, the coal units were no longer needed and are being dismantled. These four units were some of the oldest and least efficient operated by Dominion when they were taken offline.

What are the four coal fired power plants still owned by Dominion?

Chesterfield is one (colloquially known as Wheelwright)

Amoco and Bremo are now gas fired and mothballed in operable state. 

Not sure which other plants are Dominion plants though there are quite a few in Virginia. 

Google is your friend....

https://www.dominionenergy.com/company/making-energy/coal-and-oil

cockaboose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What are the four coal fired power plants still
> owned by Dominion?

First off, the article uses the term 'unit' to describe both a power station and a power generation system within the station. Most power stations have multiple generating 'units'. In my earlier comments, I was referring to individual generating units within power stations that were being decommissioned. In all cases, the power stations remain open but with a reduced number of coal-fired 'units'.

To answer the question, Dominion has 6 power stations remaining in Virginia with coal-fired generating units: Chesterfield, Clover, Mecklenburg, Mount Storm, Virginia City and Yorktown. Some of these stations have a combination of coal, gas and oil fired units. Of these stations, Dominion has indicated that Mecklenburg and Yorktown will be shut down in the near future. Mecklenburg is coal only, and the single non-coal generating unit at Yorktown, which burns oil, is older than dirt. The other four have more recent coal generation technology, so will not be shut down any time soon based on Dominion's current plans. Keep in mind that a new political administration in Washington could change this.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 16:50 by gcw.

gcw Wrote:
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 Keep in mind that a new political
> administration in Washington could change this.
>  

There were many prior posts indicating the prior administration in the White House was responsible for the death of coal. The current administration promised to bring coal back. Not much has changed. While politics could accelerate coal plant closures, I think it is clear now that the economics of coal really don't work with all the cheap natural gas around. Personally I think it would be a good idea to build some new coal plants for a diversity of sources to generate power. But profitability of power companies dictates otherwise.

I agree that the economics of coal vs natural gas mean that new coal power stations are unlikely, however the changes in EPA rules during the previous administration forced the early closure of some plants. In the case of Dominion, the Chesapeake Energy Center shut down its 4 coal-fired generators earlier than they had planned simply because they did not want to invest the money to make the plant compliant with new EPA standards. This happened with other power companies as well. If the EPA rules had not changed, the Chesapeake Energy Center would still be burning coal. A new political administration could enact EPA rules that are even more restrictive than what was done by the previous administration, which would force even more closures.
 

Elsewhere in the article is a discussion about what happens to the fly ash / coal waste stored at the closed sites.

Similar to the issue of stored nuclear waste, and what happens to that material.

Posted from Android

gcw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cockaboose Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What are the four coal fired power plants still
> > owned by Dominion?
>
> To answer the question, Dominion has 6 power
> stations remaining in Virginia with coal-fired
> generating units: Chesterfield, Clover,
> Mecklenburg, Mount Storm, Virginia City and
> Yorktown..
>  

Mount Storm is in WEST Virginia.... and with a Wind Farm across the lake from it......

Tim W.
 

At least flyash can have uses......an adjunct for cement making for example...it is rather alkaline and you need some of that for cement to harden. 

DTWilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> gcw Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > cockaboose Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > What are the four coal fired power plants
> still
> > > owned by Dominion?
> >
> > To answer the question, Dominion has 6 power
> > stations remaining in Virginia with coal-fired
> > generating units: Chesterfield, Clover,
> > Mecklenburg, Mount Storm, Virginia City and
> > Yorktown..
> >  
>
> Mount Storm is in WEST Virginia.... and with a
> Wind Farm across the lake from it......
>
> Tim W.
>  That wind farm can be seen from quite a distance......

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At least flyash can have uses......an adjunct for
> cement making for example...it is rather alkaline
> and you need some of that for cement to harden. 

Fly ash composition varies depending on the coal being burnt. Cement will happily harden without fly ash.

Natural gas is the way to go.  Abundant, cheap, cleaner than coal.  No fly ash mounds to deal with afterwards.

Sorry Mr. Trump.