The electric company said it was due to a number of factors, namely customer demand and changes in the energy market. The company said customer demand has seen little to no grown in energy demand.... By removing the plant, the company plans to reduce its emissions by 40 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2030.
http://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/we-energies-closing-150-employee-pleasant-prairie-plant
This kinda surprised me, as I didn't think the plant was that old (read: inefficient). But when W.E. added capacity at Oak Creek a few years ago, I wondered if this would happen. Also, it was just a few years ago that the CP built access to the facility.
Gee, I thought it was a somewhat modern plant too. I can usually see steam rising from the plant near where I live.
Well you close the plant now in saying that demand hasn't grown as expected. In two or three years after the plant has been disassembled there will come the cry that there isn't enough generating capacity and a new plant of some form will have to be built and the rates will have to increase to pay for building the new plant. The corporate shell game.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Good bye Pleasant Prairie coal trains. But, frac sand revenue is going to replace coal revenue anyway. At least that's what a local manager said the railroad is counting on.
Jeff
I blame all the LED lighting I've installed. Usage for lighting must have fallen off a cliff! (But where will the electricity for those Tesla Semis come from??)
and - where is the juice coming to run the Foxconn plant to be located just northwest of the Pleasant Prairie site? Has WEP thought this totally through? I suspect that we will have a new plant - perhaps natural gas fired - in the future. There's still lots of opposition to the coal fired plants in Oak Creek. Bob
zardozThis kinda surprised me, as I didn't think the plant was that old (read: inefficient).
Unit 1 was commisioned in 1980 and unit 2 in 1985. So they are quite old compared to the average lifespan of coal power plants of approximately 40 years.
The efficiency of a coal ower plant was about 32-38% in the 1980s. In 2015 a coal power plant with 47% efficiency was commisioned in The Netherlands.Regards, Volker
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