Thread by @electronecon

My latest blog went up yesterday and I'll admit, it is on the longer side. So, here is a TL/DR summary tweetstorm.
Thread alert 🚨🚨🚨 1/
blog.ucsusa.org/joseph-daniel/…

I'll start off acknowledging there have been a number of attempts (state and federal) to bailout "baseload coal plants" for all sorts of specious reasons. This is no bogus excuse takedown. I wanted to figure out: is coal even baseload anymore? 2/

https://twitter.com/Ben_Inskeep/status/1217455076211675136?s=20

These graphs (h/t @SynapseEnergy) illustrate how grid planners and operators used to think of the grid. Baseload resources were high CapX low OpX, peakers where low CapX, high OpX, either could be built and profitable depending on what the grid needed. 3/ synapse-energy.com/sites/default/…

Wind and solar, it turns out, are like baseload resources in that they have high CapX and low OpX. So, from an economics perspective, they show up in the supply curve next to the baseload resources. 4/

The simple fact is that coal plants operating costs are now too high for them to be considered baseload. Just look at this graphic from @EIAgov. It shows that coal plant economics in markest have been declining. Coal plants are struggling to cover their Ops costs!

@EIAgov Look at it another way, the production costs of a coal plant really won't be covered by market prices in most months of the year. Maybe in the winter, possibly in the summer it no longer makes sense for them to run all out all year round with this market reality. 6/

This, btw, is only going to get worse as more wind and solar come onto the grid. 7/

Now that covers "baseload" from an economics perspective, what about from an engineering and operations perspective? Well, it turns out the quintessential characteristic of a baseload resource doesn't really apply to coal either! 8/

"Baseload" resource run all out all year round. But coal isn't doing that anymore. Check out this data from EIA, it shows that coal in SPP is cycling, you can see the daily cycling and seasonal cycling of the SPP coal fleet. 9/
eia.gov/todayinenergy/…

And then, of course, you have seasonal operations. Resources that only operate 3-4 months a year aren't baseload. There is been great coverage on this issue by @bstorrow, @cmorehouse10, and some good coverage in MN and MI by some great local reporters. 10/
blog.ucsusa.org/joseph-daniel/…

@bstorrow @cmorehouse10 And guess what? When utilities switch their coal plants to economic dispatch (instead of must run) or opt for seasonal operations, they save customers millions. $85 million for customers paying for Dolet Hills. Xcel switched 2 units to seasonal ops and it'll save $30M/yr 11/

@bstorrow @cmorehouse10 Coal plant operations and economics simply don't justify calling coal-fired power plants a baseload resource. Everything in the utility industry is changing, so why are we even holding on to outdated ways of thinking about the fleet of electric resources? 12/12 Fin!