Dynegy to retire Wood River Power Generation Station

• 8 years ago (2015-11-06)

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The Wood River Power Station includes two coal-fueled units that entered commercial operation in 1954 and 1964. The decision to retire the facility is due to its uneconomic operation stemming from what Dynegy calls a poorly designed wholesale capacity market in Central and Southern Illinois that does not allow competitive generators to recover costs.

“I would like to thank the men and women who have proudly and professionally served and safely operated the Wood River facility for decades,” said Robert C. Flexon, president and CEO of Dynegy.

“Wood River has been an important part of the local community for many years providing safe, reliable, and cost effective power while also being a responsible corporate citizen.”

A statement on the Dynegy website stated that: “the current market design of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. (MISO) capacity auction is flawed because it allows regulated utilities from surrounding states to bid their capacity into the auction at little to no cost as these regulated utilities receive higher guaranteed compensation from their respective state-regulated markets.”

Dynegy expects to formally file a retirement notice with MISO by December 1, 2015. This retirement notice will trigger a reliability review by MISO, which the Company expects to be completed in the first quarter of 2016. If MISO determines the plant is not needed for reliability, Dynegy expects the retirement to occur in mid-2016.