Gulf Power's coal burn jumps 35.8% on month in February: filing

Houston — Florida utility Gulf Power's coal burn jumped to 120,352 st in February, 35.8% higher than burn in January and up fourfold from the year-ago month, according to a state regulatory filing Monday.

Coal's generation mix was at 32.4%, or 224,351 MWh, in February, down from 43.4%, or 240,066 MWh expected for the month, according to filings published by the Florida Public Service Commission. The generation mix was up from 27.6% in January and 16.1% in February 2019.

Natural gas' mix was at 66.2%, or 466,747 MWh, in February, down from 71.8% in January and 83.5% in the year-ago month.

In February, Gulf Power's average fuel cost for coal was $67.12/st, up from $65.56/st in January, but down from $67.41/st in the year-ago month.

Heat rate efficiency for coal was at 10,756 Btu/KWh in February, while gas was at 7,355 Btu/KWh, resulting in dispatch prices of roughly $36.89/MWh and $17.36/MWh, respectively. In January, coal's dispatch price was $33.98/MWH and gas' price was $18.61/MWh, while in the year-ago month, coal was at $29.63/MWh and gas at $23.23/MWh.

Gulf Power owns the Crist coal-fired power plant in Pensacola, Florida, as well as a 50% ownership of Mississippi Power's Daniel plant in Escatawpa, Mississippi and a 25% stake in one generating unit at Georgia Power's Scherer plant in Juliette, Georgia.

Coal purchases

Excluding the Scherer plant, Gulf Power purchased 102,607 st of coal in February at an average price of $64.53/st, compared with 91,870 st at $65.47/st in January and 276,821 st at $86.60/st a year ago.

The utility also bought $892,745 worth of coal for the Scherer plant in February at an average cost of $3.20/MMBtu, compared with $1.19 million worth of coal in January at $2.76/MMBtu and $1.39 million worth of coal at 95 cents/MMBtu in the year-ago month.

At the end of February, Gulf Power's coal stockpile, excluding the Scherer plant, was at 506,750 st, or 32 days of cover, compared with 524,495 st, or 33 days cover after January, and 661,909 st, or 41 days cover, at the end of February 2019.

The Scherer plant has 67 days of supply at the end of February, up from 64 days after January and 36 days at the end of the year-ago month.