Baldwin power plant units could be shut down
<span>In a Tuesday news release, and first reported by the North County News, Dynegy Midwest Generation announced that it would be shutting down multiple central and Southern Illinois coal-fueled power units.</span>
<span>Units 1 and 3 at the Baldwin Energy Complex could be shut down, as well as Unit 2 of the Newton Power Station.</span>
<span> "I don't really know at this point in time how it will effect the county," said Randolph County Commissioner and Budget Director David Holder in a phone interview with the Herald Tribune. "Obviously, you have a job loss point of view, and I'm thinking about it from the sales tax point of view.</span>
<span>"We've been analyzing the sales tax records and one of the major changes has been the coal used by the power plant."</span>
<span>Holder said the situation will be further discussed during Friday's meeting of the County Board.</span>
<span>"It could have a large impact on the finances of Randolph County, but how much is to be determined," Holder said.</span>
<span>Dynegy also announced that its Wood River Power Station will retire in June. In total, 2,800 megawatts of power generation in the state will be lost - 30 percent of the capacity in Southern Illinois.</span>
<span>"This is a difficult decision, and we don't take it lightly. For 40 years, the employees of the Baldwin and Newton Power Stations have generated reliable and affordable power for the people of Illinois," said Robert C. Flexon, chief executive officer of Dynegy, in a news release. "The men and women of these stations, just like the Wood River employees, have proudly and professionally served and safely operated these facilities for decades while contributing greatly to their communities."</span>
<span>In the release, Dynegy said the decision to shut down the units at Baldwin and Newton units was made "after they once again failed to recover their basic operating costs in the most recent (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) capacity auction."</span>
<span>In the release, Dynegy pointed to out-of-state utilities, and the non-regulation of power generation in Southern Illinois opposed to northern Illinois, as contributors to the company's problems.</span>
<span>"This is a losing model that exports southern and central Illinois jobs and economic base to the surrounding states resulting in a catastrophic economic outcome for downstate Illinois," Flexon said in the release. "As has been demonstrated repeatedly, there is a large disparity between how central and southern Illinois competitive generating stations are treated compared to generating stations in northern Illinois and MISO participants outside of Illinois.</span>
<span>"Central and southern Illinois competitive units in MISO Zone 4 are wrongly grouped with out-of-state utilities rather than the competitive power producers in northern Illinois and PJM. This must change."</span>
<span>As part of the shutdown process, a notice filed with MISO for each unit triggers a reliability review by MISO.</span>
<span>If MISO determines the units aren't needed for reliability, Dynegy expects to shut down operations at Newton Unit 2 in September of this year, Baldwin Unit 1 in October and Baldwin Unit 3 in March 2017.</span>