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Texas traces low March coal burn to longer outages

Houston , 17 April (Argus) — Texas’ primary grid operator said more than one-third of the region’s coal-fired generation was off line for extended periods in March, depressing monthly coal plant output to the lowest level in more than a decade.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said about 7,000MW of coal-fired resources shut for maintenance during “most of March.” By contrast, shorter-term outages did not exceed 5,000MW in 2014.

As many as 16 of ERCOT’s 32 coal and lignite units did not operate “during a good portion of the month due to planned outages or forced outages, or presumably economics,” ERCOT’s independent market monitor Beth Garza of Potomac Economics said.

Read full article at Argus Media