Sat, Jan 04, 2020 page10

• Montana coal power plant to close units by Sunday

  • AP, BILLINGS, Montana
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  One of the largest coal-fired power plants in the western US is to close two of its four units in the next few days as the Montana facility edges toward an eventual total shutdown.

  Colstrip Units 1 and 2 — built in the 1970s when massive strip mines were being developed across Montana and Wyoming — will close by Sunday or as soon as they run out of coal to burn, Talen Energy spokeswoman Taryne Williams said on Thursday.

  The plant employs about 300 people and is the main driver of the economy for the surrounding town of Colstrip, which has about 2,300 people.

  

  Smoke rises from the Colstrip power plant in Montana on July 1, 2013.

  Photo: AP

  However, it has been unable to compete with surging investments into sources of renewable energy and cheap natural gas, as the coal plant’s operating costs have risen with the need for better pollution controls.

  Some employees for now will be reassigned to decommissioning work that will last through the middle of this year, Williams said.

  There are “no hard and fast numbers or timelines” as the company considers how many workers will be needed for the remaining two units, she said.

  The closure of units 1 and 2 was long anticipated as demand for US coal collapsed in recent years and came despite vows by elected officials in Montana to find ways to keep it open.

  The two closing units are operated by Pennsylvania-based Talen, which co-owns them with Puget Sound Energy of Washington State.

  US Senator Duane Ankney, who represents Colstrip in the Montana Legislature, said the impending closure was a “prime example” of how out-of-state interests were hurting the coal industry to the detriment of Montana.

  “Coal does so much more than power our homes. Coal funds our public schools, infrastructure, parks and libraries,” Ankney said in a statement.

  A representative of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1638, which represents most of the plant’s union employees, could not be reached immediately for comment.

  Williams said Talen was “committed to doing what is right by our employees”and will help affected workers to transition to new jobs.

  The doors to the two units are to be welded shut tomorrow, Ankney said.

  However, there are no plans to dismantle them, because of their proximity to the two remaining units, Williams said.

  The large volume of ash generated by burning coal at Colstrip has contaminated groundwater with toxic materials and is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. Plans for that cleanup are pending with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

  Six utilities own shares of Colstrip’s remaining two units, which were built in the 1980s. Most of the owners are making preparations for operations to cease as early as 2025.

  However, one of the owners, Northwestern Energy, plans for Colstrip to keep running past 2040 and last month announced that it wants to acquire part of Puget Sound Energy’s interest in Colstrip Unit 4 for US$1.

  That would boost South Dakota-based NorthWestern’s ownership interest in the power plant to 55 percent even as many other utilities across the US have been getting out of the coal power market in recent years.
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