Supply Chain and Outage Analysis of MISO Coal Retrofits for MATS
Prepared for Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) will require the coal and oil fleet in the U.S. to comply with certain emissions standards by April 2015, with a potential 1-year extension from permitting authorities. This standard will require much of the U.S. coal fleet to install retrofit controls for compliance or face retirement. Nation-wide estimates project that 93-248 GW of coal (measured in Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) equivalent GW) will require environmental controls upgrades, while the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) projects 51-58 Wet FGD equivalent GW will require upgrades in the Midwest alone. Many coal units will retire rather than make the required capital investments, with about 30 GW having already announced retirement plans nationwide. To replace this retiring generation and meet load growth requirements by 2015, another 30-84 GW of new generation may be needed nationally, while 5-26 GW may be needed in MISO.
