For the second time in about two years, Wisconsin utilities are extending the life of one of the state’s largest coal-fired power plants and possibly converting it to run on natural gas, saying the change is necessary to ensure grid reliability.
Plant co-owners Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric and Wisconsin Public Service said in a statement that the 1,100-megawatt Columbia Energy Center would continue to operate through the end of the decade to allow for the evaluation of converting one of the plant’s two units to natural gas. The companies said the extension doesn’t affect their goals to achieve carbon emissions goals and existing commitments to eliminate coal as a fuel source.
The plant in south-central Wisconsin was initially slated for closure this year. In 2022, the owners announced that its retirement would be postponed by two years in response to tightening market conditions in the Midwest as older fossil fuel generation shuttered at a faster rate than additions of new, mostly renewable power sources.
Today, there’s a wild card for utilities and grid planners to consider: anticipated demand growth not seen in decades, with much of it attributed to power-hungry data centers.
