CPS Energy CEO: Coal-fired Deely plant may be reborn with natural gas
As state regulators move to respond to the Obama administration’s “Clean Power Plan,” San Antonio’s CPS Energy is considering switching the coal-fired Deely Power Plant to natural gas.
CPS Energy originally announced that the coal power plant would be retired by 2018 but President and CEO Doyle Beneby said during the municipally owned utility’s Board of Trustees Monday afternoon meeting that the plant can be repurposed using a cleaner-burning fuel.
“There’s a high probability that we will repower Deely with natural gas,” Beneby said during the Monday meeting.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced earlier this month that President Barack Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” intends to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030.
Although the decision to retire the Deely plant was made before the Clean Power Plan was announced, the utility would get credit for it, as well as bringing 400 MW of solar power onto the grid, CPS Energy’s Chief Generation & Strategy Officer Chris Eugster told the Board of Trustees.
