Power Plants closing

Well it looks like SWEPCO has announced that Pirkey (Brandy Branch) and Welsh power plants will be closing in the next few years.

Booo

Sucks!!!

I’ve hear this the last 10 years

Link to a news story about it.

https://www.kltv.com/2020/11/05/swe...llsville-pittsburg-plants-upgrade-third/

We buy a lot of flyash from the Welch plant, sure hope it does not close down, we have been hearing that it is just a matter of time.

They will eventually close all of the coal powered ones no matter who is running our government.

Certain ones will get them closed sooner than later.

7 years left to fish Welch........RIP

Saw that earlier... glad I work at a natural gas fired plant.

They just announced they're shutting down two more power plants here by 2027, that'll be 6 plants near here in the last few years. Glad I'll be retired well before that... My main concern is do we really have enough energy to run this country without coal???... Are we all doomed to the rolling black-outs California has???... Dan

I think we have enough natural gas in the US to last a long time.

I'm sure we do... But do we have enough natural gas plants to provide the power???... Dan

We need to build more!

If you've read any of my recent posts, you know that I have complained repeatedly about this. To build a new plant or renovate any existing one is "too expensive." The existing plants were built for a reason. To supply power to a certain area. If the power plant closes down, where does the electricity come from? I can guarantee that the demand is not gone. And I can bet that the new source of electricity is more expensive.

BTW - It is always "expensive" to build anything. That $800 million dollar park that they want to build at Lake Decker, it's expensive. When you build something for any amount, you do so with the expectation of recouping your money and making a profit.

This presidential election that is still being contested is looking like another kiss of death for coal and nuclear power plants. Sorry for the political commentary!

It ain't political, it's business $$$. Coal is too expensive. Nuclear is risky building.

One president killed the coal ( coal use to be cheaper) industry and Nuclear is clear energy and since we have had several Nuclear power plants and real no problems your answer is wrong. Gas and Nuclear are the two both clean energies and they want to kill them. Windmills kills a lot of birds and is not as good as they thought.

One thing is at Welsh they put scrubbers into and it cost a millions. I guess they are making enough money to just walk away from it.

Sometimes you just have to walk away... The regulation about to be put back into affect and the new ones coming down the road will make running it cost prohibitive... Dan

Its absolutely political.....and profit driven. You are correct in saying it’s “business $$$” though. The plants get shut down because it’s not profitable to continue operations. But it’s absolutely also political when it’s the politically driven updated EPA requirements that cause the plants to become unprofitable.

I dont think its political anymore, its just cheaper and cleaner for even the businesses themselves. Things evolve, they always have


Even with the regs rolled back -> https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063430425


Some of my best fishing has been in power plant lakes though....

Yep, I hate losing power plant lakes for fishing. But coal long term is not going to be cost effective. If the price of a electric car was 1/2 and I could get 500 miles on a charge I'd be all for it. Who doesn't want to go 0-60 in 5 seconds. Tesla's make you feel like you're driving a rocket ship, but I'm not spending 80K on an SUV that I can only drive a few hundred miles. But eventually the tech will get better and the price will come down and we'll all be driving them. Course you still need to produce the electricity, Natural gas, solar, and wind will eventually be the way that goes down plus things we can't see. May end up with a mini nuclear reactor in your truck at some point.

It is political because politics are driving the transition, not the market. We don't have the ability to power our homes and vehicles but we are forcing the issue anyway. If alternative energy was plentiful, affordable, and dependable people would switch to it voluntarily. Instead we are going to basically be told that it is irresponsible to drive large, comfortable vehicles on long trips, as in Texas to Colorado.

Are we going to have electric outboards? How many billions of dollars worth of assets will be obsolete if fossil fuels are eliminated?

Let people choose what they want. That's how a free market society works. That's not where we are headed.

Reviving this thread to ask a question about power plant lake closures. When a plant closes, does that usually mean that access to fish the lake is also closed off? More importantly, will Brandy Branch be closed for fishing after they shut the plant down in 2023? I’m not at all familiar with power plant lakes and thought I read that Lake Monticello closed down. If that’s the case what are the chances Brandy Branch closes like Monticello did?

There are several factors to consider in these. Does the power company own all the land and the lake or is it considered public? Are there public ramps or are they only on private land owned by the company? Is the lake considered a naviagable waterway? We are still working trying to regain access to Monticello and these are the key topics of discussion.

to my limited knowledge Monticello is the only one that has closed that you can no longer access. I know of 2 reasons for this 1. It was not public waters and was sold (I could be wrong here) 2. When they closed the plant they opened the gates to Bob Sandlin and that lowered the lake enough that the ramp is a hazard for regular boats. I know that there are still lots of people enjoying the lake via Kayaks. Not sure what is legal there or not.
But Fairfield and a couple others are still used and accessible.

Jody

If you consider Mountain Creek a power plant lake, it also has very limited access.
The Dallas Baptist University fishing team has the only set of keys to the gate to the only ramp on the lake; and they keep the gate locked.

when a company owns all the land around the lake it is their lake if they dont want folks there it is their right its like having a deer lease an the property sell you get your stuff get out an dont come back.

No offense but this is wrong on several fronts. The water itself is a publically managed body of water and always has been. The only thing that was sold is the plant itself and the land it sits on. All of the other land and the water it surrounds is still for sale. And the ramp in Titus County Park worked just fine after the opened one of the gates dropping the lake a couple of feet.

More birds killed flying to windows than wind turbines..

https://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/

Let's remove all windows.

Didn't we get the answer to that question in February?

I've been around for a long time. I never once heard of a coal fired plant "freezing up" before this year. It was brutally cold for 2-3 weeks in 1983 and we didn't have millions of people without power.

This is sheer idiocy. Dozens of people, maybe hundreds, froze to death in Texas in 2021 because we didn't have enough dependable capacity to keep us all warm. Think about that. Now think about the same morons who put us in that situation planning to shut down more reliable gigawatts of electricity.

The Church of Global Warming cares not. This is a religion, and zealots don't abandon their religion no matter what happens.

That had nothing to do with the power plant and everything to do with DBU buying the land where the ramp is. Crime was a huge issue there so DBU just bought out their crime problem and gated the ramp. I have a buddy with a jet boat and he still launches off the shore. We can take that sucker way up river. But I wouldn't leave my truck down there. Surprised he wasn't gotten his converter stolen.

Definitely a sketchy area.

Closed Monticello, Welsh on the chopping block! loved fishing both in the winter!

There is an actual thought that if the USA shuts down all of its "dirty" power plants, the world will be saved. While we shut down our existing power plants, without rebuilding viable alternatives, the rest of the world continues to build new ones. And they're coal-fired. Why? Because they are cheaper than anything else.

When was the last time you saw a protest in the news against coal-fired power plants in India or Africa?

I am all for keeping the environment clean and safe, but the present solar and wind technology just isn't sufficient. Period.

I dont think we do we will be like Cali before long.

Has anyone on here been to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the winter time? The smell of burning coal completely fills the air, you can see a low cloud of haze in the air. Same thing with the big tall building in NY City, they were rolling in black smoke when we were there a few years ago in the winter.
Coal is only bad for the South it appears.

Oh no!!!... I've been the industry for 25 plus years and they're shutting them down everywhere. Within a 100 mile stretch of river near Cincinnati there were 8 power plants. By early next year there will only be 2 still producing and by 2027 there will only be one left... Stay tuned... Dan

The best part is all the people complaining about it.

Look out for yourself, invest in a generation system for your home or at least a good generator for the times the power goes out.

Ted Kennedy 1
Nuclear Power 0

Has Pennsylvania had the smarts enough to build something in their place?

Nope... They're closing them, tearing them down, and shipping the guts to China... Back in 2012-13 or there about when I was working at the Turk Plant in Fulton, Ark. the AEP guys told me that this would probable be the last power plant AEP ever built... And they've been correct so far and in the current climate I think they were right... Dan