Utility executive urged DOE not to extend coal plant order, to no avail

An aging Indiana coal plant unit operating under a Trump administration emergency order struggled to produce power during a January winter storm and suffered "systemic equipment failures" within a day of being dispatched, according to the operator.

Michael Roeder, president of CenterPoint Energy Inc.'s Indiana region, detailed the performance of the F.B. Culley plant's 60-year-old Unit 2 in a Feb. 17 letter to US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, asking that the emergency order be allowed to expire.

The letter was obtained and published on April 15 by Citizens Action Coalition, an Indiana utility watchdog group.

Roeder's two-page letter contrasts with Wright's characterization of the 104-megawatt unit's contribution during the storm. Between Jan. 21 and Feb. 1, "Culley operated at roughly 30 MW almost every day, providing vital generation capacity to the region," Wright wrote on March 23 when he extended the order, against the utility executive's request.

$18 million in repairs

The Indiana utility executive said continued operation of Unit 2 would require repairs costing up to $18 million and necessitating 14 weeks of outages — investments he called impractical and fiscally irresponsible.

Between Dec. 23, 2025, and Feb. 8, the unit was online for just 17 days, and its operations were limited due to maintenance issues, Roeder wrote. The plant accounts for less than 1% of the total capacity installed in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's North/Central region.

The US Energy Department did not directly address emailed questions about the concerns Roeder voiced.

Culley's Unit 2 produced 9,338 MWh of electricity in January, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

CenterPoint declined to comment on Roeder's letter, instead pointing to the 2025 resource plan the utility submitted to Indiana regulators that said the unit had "run past its useful life." Unit 2 was set to retire by the end of 2025 under a plan approved by grid operator MISO.

Other plant owners have raised similar reliability concerns or questioned the necessity of the DOE mandates.

CenterPoint has filed cost recovery requests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for expenses associated with DOE's Culley order.

"At this time, there are no direct bill impacts to CenterPoint's Indiana power customers," a spokesperson for the company said in an email. "We remain committed to keeping customer affordability top-of-mind as we plan for recovery of costs associated with operating the unit."