Ameren Missouri to delay retiring 1,195-MW Rush Island coal plant underneath MISO reliability contract

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Dive Temporary:

• As an alternative of retiring its 1,195-MW Rush Island energy plant on Sept. 1, Ameren Missouri will probably hold it working till mid-2025 to assist grid reliability, the Midcontinent grid operator mentioned in a Friday submitting on the Federal Power Regulatory Fee.
• Shuttering the plant close to Festus, Missouri, might trigger extreme voltage stability issues, resulting in cascading energy outages, the Midcontinent Unbiased System Operator mentioned in an utility for a 12-month system assist useful resource settlement that may be renewed yearly. The contract might be paid for by load-serving entities that profit from preserving the plant working.
• MISO recognized 4 transmission upgrades which are wanted to keep up voltage on the grid, with the final one anticipated on-line by June 2025, based on the grid operator. Potential renewable power additions or attainable demand-response packages wouldn’t adequately handle the voltage drawback, based on the grid operator.

Dive Perception:

The submitting at FERC comes as MISO is working to keep up grid reliability because it offers with a skinny reserve margin in its north and central areas.

MISO in April mentioned there was a heightened threat of rolling blackouts this summer time after a capability public sale indicated the grid operator could not have sufficient capability on the most well liked days when demand surges. The shortfall might persist for a number of years, based on a MISO report launched in June.

Plans to retire energy crops in Wisconsin have additionally been pushed again over reliability considerations.

Energy plant proprietor’s should get MISO’s approval to retire a producing facility. The grid operator can enter right into a system assist useful resource settlement to maintain the plant working if it finds shuttering the power would trigger reliability points.

After a authorized dispute with the Environmental Safety Company that lasted greater than a decade, St. Louis-based Ameren in December proposed retiring the Rush Island plant sooner than deliberate as an alternative of putting in a court-mandated flue fuel desulfurization system on the plant by March 31, 2024, to cut back air air pollution.

In a June courtroom submitting, Ameren Missouri proposed working the Rush Island plant much less, primarily by limiting operations to peak demand instances and emergencies till it’s retired. Ameren expects the courtroom will reply to the corporate’s request for an prolonged retirement date and the deliberate change to the plant’s operations, Ameren mentioned in an Aug. 8 Securities and Alternate Fee submitting.

Within the meantime, MISO has authorised wanted transmission improve initiatives to facilitate Rush Island’s retirement, based on the submitting. Ameren Missouri has began design and procurement actions for the upgrades and expects to finish them by late 2025, its company dad or mum mentioned.

Ameren Missouri expects to finance Rush Island’s deliberate accelerated retirement by issuing securitized bonds. The Missouri Public Service Fee might want to approve the utility’s plan.

Rush Island had a internet plant steadiness of about $600 million and a fee base of about $500 million as of June 30, based on Ameren. In a fee case resolution issued in December, the PSC primarily based Ameren’s depreciation charges on a 2039 retirement date for the Rush Island plant, the utility firm famous.

MISO’s reliability considerations are pushed by Ameren’s “well-documented sample of delay,” Andy Knott, central area director for Sierra Membership’s Past Coal Marketing campaign, mentioned Monday in an e-mail.

“Ameren’s latest expertise retiring its Meramec coal plant offered the blueprint for what was wanted at Rush Island, which might have averted the grid reliability considerations being raised now,” Knott mentioned. “A significant concern we now have proper now’s how Ameren might be held accountable for its Clear Air Act violations and the continual, ongoing hurt from its unpermitted sulfur dioxide emissions over the previous decade.”