Despite February storm, US coal plant retirements likely to continue
Despite the Feb. 14 winter storm’s triple-digit natural gas prices, massive gas-fired generation outages, soaring power prices and rolling blackouts in the southern Great Plains of the US, coal-fired generation is likely to continue to show net capacity reductions across the Lower 48 in the next few years.
About 9.2 GW of coal-fired generation retired in 2020, down from 2019’s 14.2 GW, and another 3.2 GW is expected to retire in 2021, followed by 4.9 GW in 2022, S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows.
“The February cold shot was an outlying weather event,” said Manan Ahuja, manager of North American power at S&P Global Platts Analytics, in a March 8 email. “It was also short-lived and hasn’t had a large impact on forward gas/coal prices.”