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COAL: Xcel to 'defer' construction of Colo. gasification plant due to price tag, CEO says (10/31/2007)
Xcel Energy Inc. will delay plans to build an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant in Colorado because the development costs are higher than the utility originally expected, company CEO, President and Chairman Dick Kelly said yesterday during a one-day seminar on Colorado's "new energy economy."
Kelly said Xcel "will defer" the coal-gasification facility for several years because the construction costs would have been "way over $1 billion" if the company proceeded with plans to begin work on it as part of a Colorado Public Utilities Commission resources plan set for filing next month.
Also, the power plant would have produced 600 megawatts, which is more energy than Xcel needs for Colorado, Kelly added.
Instead, the IGCC plant may be included in future resource plans and may be in service by 2016, Kelly said. "We're not abandoning IGCC. We are deferring it for a few years," he said (Cathy Proctor, Denver Business Journal, Oct. 30).
C.W. Mining must pay $24.8M for breach of sales contract, judge rules
Utah-based C.W. Mining must pay Aquila Inc. $24.8 million for failing to fulfill the terms of a contract to sell the Missouri-based utility 1 million tons of coal for use in two coal-fired power plants in 2004, 2005 and 2006, a federal judge ruled this week.
U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell ordered C.W. Mining to pay the penalty after the company admitted in court earlier this year that it delivered only 160,000 tons of the promised coal to Aquila in 2004 and 2005. C.W. Mining was supposed to deliver 450,000 tons in 2004 and 2005 and 550,000 tons in 2005 and 2006, according to the contract it had with the utility.
C.W. Mining argued that it was legally excused from meeting the terms of the contract, agreed in 2003, due to a labor dispute and geological problems. But both claims were covered by a "force majeure" clause in the contract, Campbell said (Salt Lake Deseret Morning News, Oct. 31). -- RJD |
