After 10 Years, Backers Of Massive KS Coal Plant Expansion Concede It Won't Happen
After more than a decade of efforts to dramatically expand the Sunflower Electric Power Corporations coal-fired power plant in Holcomb, Kansas, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, the principal backer, now considers it unlikely that the project will move forward.
The Holcomb coal plant expansion project received a key air permit in March, following a Kansas Supreme Court decision. As the economic reality facing the coal industry continues to make it less and less likely that new capacity will be added, Holcomb seemed to be a potential outlier; last month it was called perhaps the most likely prospect for a major new coal plant in the United States.
But without the support of Tri-State, a Colorado-based utility, prospects for the 895-megawatt coal unit are increasingly dim. In an August 14 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tri-State reported that it had assessed the probability of us entering into construction for the Holcomb Expansion as remote. As a result, the utility reported that it had written off more than $93 million it spent trying to build the coal unit.
Lee Boughey, Tri-States senior manager for communications and public affairs, acknowledged in an email that the utility had determined that some of the projects costs were not recoverable, but said the Tri-State Board of Directors hadnt made a final decision about the fate of the project.
EDIT
https://thinkprogress.org/holcomb-coal-plant-is-a-long-shot-9a71b500b37e/