We Energies' coal-fired power plant in Pleasant Prairie to be shut down in 2018

For decades, steam billowing from the twin cooling towers of We Energies' coal-fired power plant in Pleasant Prairie has been a familiar landmark for motorists driving along I-94 near in Kenosha County.

On Tuesday, Milwaukee-based WEC Energy Group announced it was closing the plant permanently in the second quarter of 2018 as the company moves to cheaper natural gas and other energy sources.

The decision is the latest sign of coal’s diminishing status as a source of electric generation as utilities turn to natural gas, surplus wholesale power and renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Pleasant Prairie is a major source of power in the state. The plant uses an average of 13,000 tons of coal a day, shipped in train cars from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. In full operation, it can supply the electric needs of about 1 million homes.

The shift to other fuel options should lead to lower prices for consumers in the future, the company said.

But consumer groups raised questions about the impact of the shutdown.

Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group and the Citizens' Utility Board both said they will raise questions with the state Public Service Commission about costs related to the shutdown and the impact they could have on customers.

Thomas Content, CUB's executive director, said that "one reason the company has the seventh highest prices in the Midwest is that they have built so much, that they have surplus power they don't need."

Pleasant Prairie has been operating at reduced capacity at times in recent years, underscoring its excess plant capacity and the cheaper energy options available to the company. Pleasant Prairie did not operate for three months this spring, the company said.

The plant's closing also means less air pollution and a smaller carbon footprint for state’s largest utility holding company and should help southeastern Wisconsin address longstanding ozone air emission problems.

“We are looking for a clean, reliable energy future for our customers,” said Cathy Schulze, a spokeswoman for the company.

The power plant employs 158 people and the company said it will try to keep many of the employees by redeploying them to other facilities.

Environmental groups applauded the news of the shift away from coal.

"This welcome announcement is yet another example of the inevitable shift to safer and more cost-effective clean energy, and highlights why Wisconsin needs a proactive plan to shift to clean energy and invest in the people impacted," Elizabeth Katt Reinders of the Sierra Club office in Wisconsin said in a statement.

The twin units were constructed in 1980 and 1985 and together can produce nearly 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

WEC Energy Group's Wisconsin operations include We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service.

We Energies spent $325 million on pollution controls at Pleasant Prairie to satisfy directives from state and federal regulators more than a decade ago to reduce emissions from the plant.

In a related development, the company said it has plans to own and develop 350 megawatts of solar power by 2020 when it teams up with a partner not yet identified. A site for the project also has not yet been identified.

The utility's plans for solar would make it the largest renewable project in the state. The next largest project, generating 100 megawatts, is planned next to the Point Beach nuclear power plant near Two Rivers.

The move into solar is a recognition of falling prices and technological improvements, said the company's Schulze.

“The transition from coal to solar is a great step forward,” said Tyson Cook, who tracks air and science issues for Clean Wisconsin, an environmental group.

The shuttering of Pleasant Prairie also means “lower air pollution and increased air benefits for the state of Wisconsin,” Cook said.

But CUB's worry is whether customers will be charged twice "to pay for the assets that are still on the books with the old plant and then pay for new plants like solar," Content said.

"The company has a fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders to grow earnings by putting steel in the ground, and we want to make sure they truly need new generation," he said.