Colorado power plan may include coal-fired plant in Wyoming

Washington (Platts)--10Nov2005

A coal-fired power plant to be built on North American Power Group's property
in Campbell County, Wyo., is part of the company's bid to provide additional
electricity to northern Colorado. If NAPG wins the bid, the new plant would be
the company's second coal-fired plant in the county. 

The company would build a 586-MW clean-coal project if it wins Xcel Energy's
2,500-MW request for proposals for Colorado through 2013. Xcel's RFP includes
dispatchable sources, non-dispatchable sources such as 750 MW of wind
generation and 320 MW of demand-side management programs, an Xcel Energy
spokesman said. The short list of finalists for the Colorado Least-Cost
Resource Plan should be ready some time in December or early next year, with
the project award coming in the first quarter of 2006. 

NAPG is still in the review stage about what type of clean-coal plant to
build, if it wins the award, an spokeswoman told Platts Coal Trader. An
integrated gasification combined-cycle plant is under consideration as is a
mix of technologies. 

The plant would be built near NAPG's unit that is under construction and will
burn waste coal from Arch Coal's Black Thunder mine. Additionally, NAPG would
have to construct a transmission line to get the electricity from Wyoming to
Colorado. Xcel estimates that building the 290-mile line and integrating the
proposed generation station into its system would cost $180-mil. 

Building near the mine on land it already owns would eliminate some of the
environmental and economic costs of shipping coal by railroad, said NAPG
President Michael Ruffatto. "It just makes sense to generate power from coal
at its source rather than moving more coal across the country in mine-long
trains." 

NAPG's Two Elk Generation Partners subsidiary is building a 310-MW plant south
of Wright in Campbell County that would burn waste coal. The plant won
approval during the summer from Wyoming's Industrial Siting Council. 

The siting council "tries to be the capstone agency" for approving projects
valued at more than $155-mil in construction costs, a spokesman told Platts
Coal Trader. It acts after all other state approvals have been received and
must give its decision within 60 days. 

-- Charlotte Wright, charlotte_wright@platts.com

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