Texas traces low March coal burn to longer outages
Houston , 17 April (Argus) — Texas’ primary grid operator said more than one-third of the region’s coal-fired generation was off line for extended periods in March, depressing monthly coal plant output to the lowest level in more than a decade.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said about 7,000MW of coal-fired resources shut for maintenance during “most of March.” By contrast, shorter-term outages did not exceed 5,000MW in 2014.
As many as 16 of ERCOT’s 32 coal and lignite units did not operate “during a good portion of the month due to planned outages or forced outages, or presumably economics,” ERCOT’s independent market monitor Beth Garza of Potomac Economics said.
