US regional power utility Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L, part of the Great Plains Energy group) has announced that it would retire five coal-fired units and one gas-fired unit at three power plants by 31 December 2019.
The closure, related to the reduction in wholesale electricity market prices, expected environmental compliance costs and low near-term capacity needs, will affect all the Montrose and Sibley coal units by 31 December 2018: 164 MW Montrose-2 and 176 MW Montrose-3, which were commissioned in 1960 and 1964, respectively, along with 48 MW Sibley-1 (1960), 51 MW Sibley-2 (1962) and 364 MW Sibley-3 (1969). A 97 MW gas-fired unit at the Lake Road power plant will be shut down by 31 December 2019.
In 2015, KCP&L announced the company was considering retiring the coal units or converting them to an alternative fuel source at these plants. One 97 MW coal-fired unit at the Lake Road Station was converted to natural gas in 2016. Since that time, several emerging industry trends and changing circumstances led the company to announce its plans to retire the six generating units.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.