Midwest Utilities Plan for Gas, Wind, Solar and Batteries to Replace Coal

By Christian Roselund

In the final days of October and early November three Midwestern utilities have revealed plans for their future power supply. All are planning for expedited retirement of coal-fired power plants and to replace these with a mixture of gas-fired power plants, solar, wind, and battery storage, although the mix of these resources varies between the three.

As the first of these, AES Indiana provided a preview of its upcoming integrated resource plan (IRP) on 31 October 2022. The company’s preferred resource portfolio features the retirement of two units at its Petersburg coal-fired power plant, and the conversion of these units to 1,052 megawatts of natural gas-fired generation. Alongside this, AES plans to install a new 240-megawatt battery storage facility at the Petersburg plant, and to procure up to 900 megawatts of wind, 90 megawatts of solar combined with battery storage, and 75 megawatts of standalone storage by 2027.

In Michigan, DTE filed its IRP before state regulators on 3 November 2022. By 2027, the utility plans to add 800 megawatts of solar and 240 megawatts of battery storage, as well as retiring the 1,270-megawatt Belle River coal-fired power plant and convert it to a fast-ramping natural gas-fired “peaker” plant.

DTE then plans to retire the first two units of its coal-fired Monroe Power Plant, which total 1,535 megawatts, in 2028. This is 12 years ahead of the previous schedule, and the utility describes the pre-2027 capacity additions as necessary preconditions for this move. DTE plans to retire the Monroe plant’s remaining units in 2035, after which it will have no more coal-fired generation.

Finally, on 31 October 2022 Xcel Energy, which operates in eight states in the Midwest, Mountain West, and Texas, has announced that it will end operations at the coal-fired Tolk Generating Station in Texas in 2028. This is four years earlier than previously planned and will permit the utility to exit coal entirely by 2030.

In its quarterly earnings presentation on 27 October 2022, Xcel estimated that it plans to add roughly 4,000 megawatts of renewable energy in Colorado, 5,800 megawatts in the Upper Midwest, and 1,900 megawatts in Texas and New Mexico. These changes will reduce the emissions intensity of its operations by 70% – 85%, depending on the region. Xcel has calculated that the renewable energy Production Tax Credit (PTC) reduces the levelized cost of solar projects 25% – 40% and the cost of wind projects 50% – 60%.

Source: 2022 Integrated Resource Plan (presentation, AES Indiana)

Source: DTE Integrated Resource Plan (DTE)

Press release: Xcel Energy proposes to exit coal by 2030 (Xcel Energy)