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US utilities say increased coal deliveries help, but more needed


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 08 October 2014 - 05:29 PM

Platts, 10/7:

US utilities say increased coal deliveries help, but more needed



Houston (Platts)--Despite data last week from the US Energy Information Administration showing a 9.3% increase in estimated coal production west of the Mississippi River, it has not eased concerns from some Midwestern utilities facing an uncertain winter.

"We are seeing a few more trains," a vice president for one Western producer said, adding that producers have started seeing more consistency from the two carriers -- Union Pacific and BNSF Railway -- who serve the Powder River Basin.

"It's good for all of us in the basin," the vice president said.

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#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 16 November 2014 - 06:11 PM

McClatchey News Service, 11/13:

Running low on coal, utilities ask regulators to prod railroads

WASHINGTON — Ongoing rail service problems have left power plants from Minnesota to Texas low on coal as an early blast of winter weather hit the nation’s midsection this week.

Some fear the stage has been set for a repeat of last winter, when heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures crippled rail operations in the Upper Midwest and Chicago, which had ripple effects across the rest of the country.

Anticipating heavy electricity use this winter, coal customers and groups representing them have written letters to federal regulators in recent weeks to complain about delayed deliveries and low stockpiles.

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#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 27 November 2014 - 10:34 AM

The Wall Street Journal, 11/23:

Utilities Press Railroad to Speed Coal Deliveries

Group Asks Regulator to Impose Timetable on BNSF for Steps to Relieve Track Congestion

 

Saying they are running short on coal, electric utilities from Minnesota to Texas are trying to pressure Warren Buffett ’s BNSF Railway Co. to speed up deliveries on its congested tracks before the worst of the winter weather hits.

 

One group of utilities has petitioned federal regulators to impose a timetable on BNSF to add workers and improve tracks leading east from coal fields in Wyoming. Utilities also are negotiating directly with BNSF.

 

In Minnesota, politicians and regulators warn that consumers could pay millions of dollars in extra charges if utilities have to buy high-cost backup power because they can’t operate their coal-fired power plants.

 

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#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 02 December 2014 - 11:21 PM

Forum News Service via Prairie Business:

MN utilities plan coal shortage stratgies as rail network struggles to keep up

 

DULUTH, Minn. -- Four northern Minnesota power units will be fired up again after a more than two-month shutdown in the face of difficulties obtaining shipments of coal by rail.

 

Two units at Minnesota Power’s Laskin Energy Center in Hoyt Lakes were restarted last week and the Duluth-based company pledges to fire up two more coal-burning generators at its Taconite Harbor facility in Schroeder before Jan. 1.

 

The generators were idled as part of a conservation strategy, explained Pat Mullen,

 

Minnesota Power’s vice president of marketing and corporate communications.Mullen said the company took steps to avoid a potential re-emergence of problems it encountered last winter when the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway failed to deliver the coal needed to sustain operations.

 

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