PERFORMANCE RANKINGS continued from 22 Plant operators are finding that taking the plants down for a full 40 Coal: Big and cheap days for scheduled maintenance isn’t always necessary. Nationally, coal generation dropped between 2005 and 2006. Hewson What can also put a plant in the top 20 is being a cogenerator. said a lot of factors triggered that decrease. “We increased nuclear “In cogeneration, you’re producing steam for industrial use and since generation and we built a Table 4: Top 20 Coal Generators Ranked by Capacity Factor (2006) lot of gas combined cycle 2006 2006 2006 2006 plants. Something in terms Capacity Generation Capacity Factor Coal Burn of dispatch had to give, and Rank Owner Plant MW MWH % MMBtu that was coal. We dropped 1 Kennecott KUCC 93 804,681 98.4% 10,222,663 a little bit more than 1. 2 2 Deseret Gen & Trans Co-op Bonanza 460 3,895,543 96.7% 40,929,680 percent in coal generation 3 Golden Valley Elec Assn Healy 25 210,174 96.0% 3,004,666 4 Reliant Energy Conmaugh 1,700 14,289,647 96.0% 135,404,168 from the year before.” 5 SCANA Cope 413 3,426,837 94.8% 31,757,825 But coal is still heavily 6 Vectren Warrick 135 1,119,942 94.7% 2,850,830 lized because it is so 7 American National Power Coleto Creek 632 5,240,154 uti 94.7% 53,714,928 inexpensive. Dispatched 8 E.ON Trimble County 511 4,232,585 94.6% 45,981,238 after nuclear, the biggest 9 Duke Energy East Bend 600 4,972,870 94.6% 50,604,670 coal plants can achieve 10 Ameren Joppa Steam 1,014 8,349,924 94.0% 86,592,747 very high capacity factors. 11 E.ON Green 454 3,702,495 93.1% 42,411,970 12 Los Angeles (City Of) Intermountain 1,780 14,451,689 92.7% 141,330,109 “On the whole, there are 13 Ameren Labadie 2,300 18,577,546 92.2% 187,804,149 no surprises here. These 14 General Chemical Corp General Chemical 30 242,002 92.1% 14,051,311 plants are big and cheap, 15 Energy Investors Fund Group Fort Drum Cogen 56 447,065 92.0% 5,475,813 and some of the lowest 16 TXU Monticello 1,880 14,961,282 90.8% 167,140,692 cost sources of power in 17 NRG Energy Limestone 1,602 12,709,534 90.6% 128,118,924 their power pools.” 18 AES Somerset (Kintigh) 684 5,398,183 90.2% 50,985,707 In 2006, three new 19 FirstEnergy Bruce Mansfield 2,360 18,628,146 90.1% 186,087,163 20 Dominion Clover 882 6,942,867 89.9% 59,372,130 plants made the top 20Total Total Total Avg. Total generation rankings (see Of Top 20 Capacity factors 17,609 142,603,166 92.4% 1,443,841,383 Table 3)—W.H. Sammis, 443 Reporting 303,616 1,960,112,954 73.7% 20,981,350,825 Roxboro and Bridger— Source: Energy Ventures Analysis (DOE-EIA 906 data; EPA CEMS data) and three dropped out— Table 5: Top 20 Coal Generators Ranked by Heat Rate (2006)
Jeffrey, Marshall and 2006
Colstrip. In 2006, there Capacity were two more facilities Rank MW reporting. 1 882
As far as capacity 2 1,607 factor, (see Table 4) if a 3 330 4 869 plant’s on the list one year, 5 2,240 it’s likely it won’t make it 6 1,165 the next. That has a lot to do 7 2,090 with outages, said Hewson. 8 413 For 2006, there are only 9 1,893 five plants repeating. 10 1,300
“What’s interesting 11 1,119 12 1,741 to me,” said Hewson, “is 13 1,515 that historically, the top 14 684
20 has been dominated by 15 2,340 western units. They get on 16 1,700 the list because California 17 3,000 uses a lot of energy and 18 603 has to import a lot of 19 186 20 2,600 power and coal plants are Total the cheapest.” But this Of Top 20 Heat Rates 28,275 year, quite a few eastern 447 Reporting 311,547 plants are in the picture. Source: Energy Ventures Analysis (DOE-EIA 906 data; EPA CEMS data)
State
Utah
Utah
Ala.
Pa.
S.C.
Ind.
Texas
Ky.
Ky.
Ill.
Ky.
Utah
Mo.
Wyo.
N.Y.
Texas
Texas
N.Y.
Pa.
Va.
2006
Heat Rate
Btu/kWh
12,704
10,507
14,296
9,476
9,267
2,546
10,251
10,864
10,176
10,370
11,455
9,779
10,109
58,063
12,248
11,172
10,081
9,445
9,990
8,552
Avg.
10,125
10,704
Owner
Dominion
Dominion
Cogentrix
TVA
Duke
Mirant
Duke
SCANA
Southern Company
AEP
Dominion
Southern Company
PPL Corporation
AES
DPL
Reliant Energy
DTE
SCANA
Xcel
AEP
Plant
Clover
Mt Storm
Indiantown Gen.
Bull Run
Belews Creek
Morgantown
Marshall
Cope
E C Gaston
Mountaineer
Brayton Point
Wansley
Montour
Somerset (Kintigh)
J M Stuart
Conmaugh
Monroe
Williams
Valmont
Rockport
State Va. W. Va. Fla. Tenn. N.C. Md. N.C. S.C. Ala. W. Va. Mass. Ga. Pa. N.Y. Ohio Pa. Mich. S.C. Colo. Ind.
2006
Generation
MWH
6,942,867
11,818,283
2,129,873
4,696,141
15,491,411
7,476,595
12,968,324
3,426,837
11,388,978
7,173,682
7,394,178
12,617,417
10,916,977
5,398,183
14,693,995
14,289,647
17,986,907
4,490,685
1,266,355
20,356,894
Total
192,924,229
1,962,277,423
2006
Capacity Factor
%
90%
84%
74%
62%
79%
73%
71%
95%
69%
63%
75%
83%
82%
90%
72%
96%
68%
85%
78%
89%
Avg.
79%
67%
2006 Coal Burn MMBtu 59,372,130 101,530,931 18,724,409 41,920,659 139,773,424 67,842,065 118,571,996 31,757,825 106,316,478 67,038,332 69,256,501 118,269,232 102,614,990 50,985,707 138,879,253 135,404,168 171,156,162 42,873,931 12,095,939 194,972,140
Total
11,789,356,272 21,086,633,863
2006
Heat Rate
Btu/kWh
8,552
8,591
8,791
8,927
9,023
9,074
9,143
9,267
9,335
9,345
9,366
9,373
9,400
9,445
9,451
9,476
9,516
9,547
9,552
9,578
Avg.
9,275
10,414
References:
Archives