The Central Electric Power Cooperative of Missouri state, US, has announced the closure of the 66MW Chamois Power Plant located in the same state because of the rising costs.
The coal-fired power will shut down in September as costs of fuel delivery, upcoming environmental regulations and on-site improvements continue to rise.
Central Electric’s board of directors has made the decision based on estimations of possible cost of operations in the future.
While Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates for controlling various emissions will cost $14m in the next five years, which boosts operating costs by $150,000 a year, $3m is required to build a new rail siding to unload coal cars.
Meanwhile, the plant’s long-term railroad coal delivery contract will expire in 2013. However, new contract price is now 94% more expensive than the current one, Central Electric said.
The company reiterated that availability of low-cost natural gas production in addition to increasing costs of coal delivery costs make the plant’s operation uneconomical.
In the past few years, the load growth at Central Electric had diminished, and the firm’s wholesale power supplier Associated Electric Cooperative has other plants to economically provide members with power.