Coal-fired electricity plans reduced to minimal levels in Northeast

A new report from the Energy Information Administration finds that the number of coal-fired power plants in New England and New York has declined sharply.

Coal-fired electricity generation peaked in the United States peaked in 2007 when coal accounted for 15 percent of the electricity generated in both New England and New York. In 2019 coal’s share of generation will be less than 1 percent in each region, according to EIA.

The report states that many have either retired or switched fuels with more closures coming in the next few months. For example, in November 2019, the owners of the Somerset coal-fired power plant in upstate New York announced plans to retire the 686-megawatt (MW) facility in March 2020.

After the Somerset plant is closed, New York will have no remaining coal-fired electric generating capacity.

In New England, the 385 MW Bridgeport Station coal-fired plant (385 MW) is scheduled to retire no later than July 2021. After this closure, the region with only have four coal-fired plants: the Merrimack plant (439 MW) and Schiller plant (138 MW), both in New Hampshire, and the Rumford Cogeneration power plant (85 MW) and S.D. Warren Westbrook industrial plant (56 MW), both in Maine.

The closures are the result of tightening environmental regulations and increasingly competitive wholesale power markets. Plant owners are finding these factors difficult to overcome as continued operation would require investment in environmental control equipment or other upgrades.