Is new coal generation to be built at mines or brownfield sites?
Washington (Platts)--7Oct2005
Still smarting from his company's unceremonious ouster from St. Joseph County,
Ind., Joseph Tondu, owner of Tondu Corp., said Thursday he's reached a painful
conclusion: Any new coal-fired generating project in the US can only be
located at a coal mine or an existing coal plant.
Tondu told Platts Coal Trader that reality was drummed home to him when the
St. Joseph County Council on Sep 22 rejected the Houston-based company's
request for a special use permit for a 550-MW integrated gasification
combined-cycle power plant.
Tondu planned to construct the plant at a site near New Carlisle where
Allegheny Energy Supply invested about $50-mil several years ago in a power
plant that was partially completed before it was abandoned. It was a natural
gas-fired plant.
"We've come to the conclusion there's only two locations you can site a new
coal-fired power plant -- at a coal mine or an existing coal plant," he said.
To that end, Tondu said he is "looking real hard" in the Chicago area where
several old coal plants are shuttered.
"I was disappointed by the NIMBY [not in my backyard] opposition" in St.
Joseph County, he said. "It really was kneejerk."
Tondu said he prefers a location in northern Indiana or northern Illinois
because that's close to where he intends to sell the plant's output. Electric
transmission issues also are less of a problem in those areas than in southern
Indiana, where Tondu is evaluating a plant site at the former Chinook surface
mine.
Chinook is a good location in some ways, mainly because the property includes
about 9,000 acres. According to J. Nathan Noland, president of the Indiana
Coal Council, Chinook still has mineable reserves. Tondu has been negotiating
with Energy Ventures Analysis, which is marketing Chinook on behalf of owner
Lexington Coal.
Altogether, Tondu said he's evaluating six sites in Indiana, Michigan and
Ohio.
--Bob Matyi, bobmaty@adelphia.net |
