Worldwide, coal plants are grappling with environmental issues and low capacity utilisation levels. They have not only become unprofitable to utilities, they are also uneconomical to customers.
While retiring end-of-life coal plants can overall be beneficial, and indeed necessary as finance continues to exit the fossil fuel sector driven by the global energy transition, the execution may encounter resistance for several reasons such as costs involved, identification of plants, impact on the existing workforce and hence communities, and other system flexibility considerations.
We suggest retirements can be better rationalised with a clear empirical estimation of costs and benefits incurred in decommissioning plants vis-à-vis repurposing them.
