Texas coal plant to close in 2020

• 5 years ago (2018-09-26)
• David Flin

Coal 273 North America 996

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Officials have announced that the 700 MW Okalunion coal-fired plant in Vernon, Texas, USA will be retired in 2020, citing a failure to compete in the energy market. Greg Blair, spokesman for the owner American Electric Power Texas, said that the company voted to close the plant because it was not competitive in the state’s energy market, run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). He said: “The owners voted to close the plant between April and October 2020. There are a lot more approvals that are required before that happens, but the plant was no longer competitive in the ERCOT market.”

The plant is the fifth coal-fired plant in Texas to close, or announce plans to close, this year. Coal-fired plants have struggled to be a competitive energy source as the price of natural gas has fallen.