Coal Age

DEC 2014

Coal Age Magazine - For nearly 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.

Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/438053

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 59

by the reopening of Patriot Coal Co.'s Highland No. 9 deep mine near Waverly, which was temporarily idled earlier this year. In addition to Union County, other western Kentucky counties to see increases in the third quarter included Hopkins, Muhlenberg and McLean. McLean, in fact, had a whopping 259.4% increase, mainly because of the start of production at Rhino Resource Partners' new Pennyrile underground mine, also known as Riveredge. The western Kentucky counties of Ohio, Webster and Daviess counties, however, produced less coal in the third quarter. Even with a modest statewide increase in production, total coal mine employment continued to tumble by 187 employees, or 1.6% during the quarter. There were 7,229 miners in eastern Kentucky, a 2.8% decrease, while mine employment in western Kentucky ticked upward by 18 people to 4,441. Despite the lower production in eastern Kentucky, Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett still saw a silver lining in the report. "I think we've seen four quarters now of relatively steady production" in eastern Kentucky, he said. "We're not dealing with the precipitous drop in 2012 and 2013. It's not good news, but it's not bad news either." Bissett's bigger concern is what happens in the months ahead. He's eager to see the state agency's first quarter 2015 report. "There is talk of a very, very cold winter, which is good news for coal." Green River Coal Plant Will Remain in Operation Until April 2016 Kentucky's two largest electric utilities, Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E;) and Kentucky Utilities (KU), have decided to keep their 163- megawatt Green River coal-burning power plant near Central City in Muhlenberg County in commercial operation at least until April 2016, which is good news for the region's high-sulfur coal producers who supply about 400,000 tons of thermal coal to the plant annually. Until late November, the subsidiaries of Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. had planned to retire Green River in April 2015 to comply with the federal Environmental Protection Agency's new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. The rule takes effect next April and Green River's two vintage units, dating from 1954 and 1959, respectively, are not equipped with pollution controls to suffi- ciently reduce mercury emissions. Because of the plant's age, LG&E; and KU opted not to spend the millions of dollars that would be necessary to comply with MATS. They proposed, and later withdrew, plans to construct a new 700- megawatt natural gas-fired plant at the Green River site near the Green River. But after considering the amount of coal-fired generating capac- ity planned for retirement by electric utilities in the region over the next few years to meet MATS, more than several thousand megawatts, LG&E; and KU had a change of heart and decided to keep Green River open a while longer. By December 17, they plan to submit a formal application to the Kentucky Division of Air Quality for an additional year of operation for Green River. Typically, these types of extension requests are granted by state regulators. "With the additional shutdown driven by MATS in that area, we felt like there were some reliability concerns," said Chris Whelan, an LG&E;/KU spokeswoman. If approved by KDAQ, "Green River would operate until April 2016." In an integrated resource plan filed with the Kentucky Public Service Commission earlier this year, LG&E; and KU indicated they might retire two units at the 739-megawatt E.W. Brown coal plant near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in 2020. However, that is not a foregone conclusion, Whelan stressed. "We have no current plans to shut Brown down," she said. A new study prepared by the engineering firm of Black and Veatch for LG&E; and KU found that Units 1 and 2 at Brown are in good condi- tion and presumably could produce electricity for many more years. "The Brown Units 1 and 2 boilers are in good general condition," the study said, "and plant staff has indicated they are satisfied with the performance of both boilers and concerns about slagging asso- ciated with burning Illinois Basin coal have not materialized." n e w s c o n t i n u e d C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S January 28-30, 2015: West Virginia Coal Association Coal Mining Symposium , Charleston Civic Center, Charleston, West Virginia. Contact: Email: Sandi Davison, SDavison@wvcoal.com; Web: wvcoal.com. February 1-4, 2015: 41 st Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique , New Orleans, Louisiana. Contact: Web: www.isee.org/2015-conference. February 5-6, 2015: Coaltrans USA , JW Marriot Marquis, Miami, Florida. Contact: Web: www.coaltrans.com/usa. February 10-13, 2015: AED Summit and Condex , Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando, Florida. Contact: Web: www.aednet.org. February 11-13, 2015: World Trade and Transport Conference , Omni Royal Orleans Hotel French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana. Contact: Mississippi Valley Trade and Transport Council; Web: www.mvttc.com. February 15-18, 2015: 2015 SME Annual Conference & Expo CMA 117 th National Western Mining Conference , Colorado Convention Center, Denver. Contact: Web: www.smean- nualconference.com/. February 23-25, 2015: National Weighing and Sampling Association Annual Technical Meeting , Westport Hotel, St. Louis Missouri. Contact: Web: www.nwsassn.org. March 1-4, 2015: PDAC 2015 , Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Canada. Contact: Web: www.pdac.ca/convention. March 6-7,2015: Coaltrans India , Grand Hyatt Goa, Goa, India. Contact: Web: www.coal- trans.com. April 16-17, 2015: Coaltrans China , Sofitel Beijing, Beijing, China. Contact: Web: www.coaltrans.com. April 27-29, 2015: Coal Prep 2015 Conference , Lexington Center, Lexington, Kentucky. Contact: Web: www.coalprepshow.com. May 10-13, 2015: CIM Convention, Montreal , Quebec. Contact: CIM; Web: http://con- vention.cim.org/. May 17-19, 2015: Haulage and Loading 2015 , Wigwam Resort, Phoenix, Arizona. Contact: Email: tfearney@mining-media.com; Web: www.haulageandloading.com. June 7-10, 2015: CoalTrans Asia , BICC, Bali, Indonesia. Contact: Web: www.coaltrans.com. June 16-18, 2015: Longwall USA Exhibition and Conference , The David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Contact: Email: tfearney@mining- media.com; Web: www.longwallusa.com. July 28-30, 2015: 34 th International Conference on Ground Control in Mining , Morgantown, West Virginia. Contact: Web: http://icgcm.conferenceacademy.com. September 16 - 18, 2015: Bluefield Coal Show , Brushfork Armory-Civic Center, Bluefield, West Virginia. Contact: Web: www.bluefieldchamber.com/bluefield-coal-show. October 17-19, 2015: 34 th International Conference on Ground Control in Mining (China) , Jiaozuo, China. Contact: Nan Hua; Tel: (86) 13569149976; Email:icgcmchina@gmail.com. 16 www.coalage.com December 2014

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Coal Age - DEC 2014