SWEPCO to shut Louisiana coal plant by end of 2026, explore retirement of 2 others

New York — Southwestern Electric Power Co. is shutting down the 642.1-MW lignite-burning Dolet Hills power plant in De Soto County, Louisiana, as part of a rate case settlement approved by the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

Under a settlement reached with Sierra Club and other intervenors, the American Electric Power Co. Inc. subsidiary agreed to retire the power plant no later than the end of 2026. SWEPCO will be entitled to recover decommissioning and other associated costs. (Docket No. 19-008-U)

In announcing the settlement January 8, the Sierra Club said the Dolet Hills decision was the 300th to retire a coal-fired power plant since the environmental advocacy group began its "Beyond Coal" campaign in 2010.

Other intervenors include the Consumer Utilities Rate Advocacy Division of the Arkansas Attorney General's Office, Walmart Inc., Western Arkansas Large Energy Consumers and the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas.

The utility also agreed to conduct analyses of an assumed retirement of the lignite-fired Pirkey facility in Harrison County, Texas, in 2025 and the retirements of the coal-fired Flint Creek and Welsh plants in 2030. SWEPCO owns a 50% interest in Flint Creek, in Benton County, Arkansas, and in 2016 retired one of the three units at Welsh, in Titus County, Texas. It may also issue a request for proposals for power generation in case of any foreseeable power shortfalls in the next five years.

The Sierra Club has campaigned against the Dolet Hills plant for years. In an April 2015 filing in a Louisiana Public Service Commission proceeding, the group claimed the plant was not economic to operate, saying its fuel costs were among the highest in the country.

SWEPCO owns a roughly 40% interest in Dolet Hills, which began operating in 1986. Cleco Partners LP utility Cleco Power LLC owns a 50% interest in the plant and is its operator. A company representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment Jan. 9 about Cleco's future plans regarding Dolet Hills. Northeast Texas Electric Cooperative Inc. and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority also own small stakes.

The output of Dolet Hills is split evenly between the Southwest Power Pool and Midcontinent ISO markets. AEP owns the nearby lignite mine that provides fuel for the plant.

MOVING TOWARD WIND

SWEPCO and sister company Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, or PSO, in July 2019 outlined a clean energy strategy that calls for a reduction in coal-fired generation capacity, increases in natural gas and wind resources and the introduction of solar energy supply. As part of this strategy, the companies have asked regulators in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas for approval of the proposal to acquire the wind farms in Oklahoma.

The three facilities include the 999-MW Traverse Wind Energy Center, the 288-MW Maverick Wind Project and the 199-MW Sundance Wind Project. PSO reached a settlement on Dec. 10, 2019, with the staff of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and other stakeholders to recover costs of acquiring a 45.5% stake in the facilities.

The rate case settlement approved by the Arkansas PSC also entails a net annual increase of $23.9 million in nonfuel base rates for SWEPCO, effective December 31, 2019.