Power-Supply Crunch Leads Vistra to Keep Coal Plant Alive Longer

(Bloomberg) -- Vistra Corp. now plans to operate a 1,185-megawatt coal-fired power plant in southwestern Illinois through 2027 instead of shutting it down next year as blackout risks rise on the central US grid.

The life of the Baldwin power plant, which produces enough electricity to supply about 592,500 homes, is being extended “amid widespread concern over reliability” on the central US grid operated by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, the company said in a statement Tuesday. This month, Vistra also brought online 68 megawatts of solar generation and a 2-megawatt energy system at the same facility. 

The move was announced after federal regulators warned that the MISO grid has the highest risk of supply shortfalls even in normal conditions. The grid serves about 45 million people in an area stretching from the Great Lakes and Canada to the Gulf Coast. 

Mounting power demand is complicating the energy transition and stressing already vulnerable US electric grids. Amid that backdrop, the country faces widespread shutdowns of fossil-fuel generation and lagging start-up of new power supplies, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said in an assessment Tuesday.  

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