The Indiana regulator IURC (Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission) has rejected CenterPoint Energy's plans to build a 850-MW natural gas-fired power plant to replace two coal-burning units at its A.B. Brown coal-fired power plant, saying the potential financial risk to ratepayers is too high at times of rapid changes in the US power generation sector. The project is estimated difficult as it would not reasonably reduce the potential risk that customers could sometime in the future be saddled with an uneconomic investment.
Vectren, that merged with CenterPoint Energy in October 2018, initially discussed the option of retiring coal-fired units in late 2016 and announced plans to close three coal-fired power units, replacing that generation with a proposed natural gas-fired facility along with additional solar power. The 700-MW Brown plant has two 245 MW coal-fired units that will be retired. The plant also has two 88 MW natural gas-fired units that will continue operating. The units at Brown came online between 1960 and 1970.
In October 2018, the FERC cleared the US$6bn merger between the US utilities CenterPoint Energy and Vectren Corporation. The closing of the transaction was completed in February 2019. Since then, the combined company operated under the name of CenterPoint Energy and serves over 7 million customers.
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