LG&E and KU credits LED lights as it announces plans to shut down two coal-burning units

LG&E and KU Energy said Tuesday it will shed additional older, expensive coal-burning units from its energy mix.

Blame – or credit – those super-efficient LED lights and more stringent environmental regulations. Both were factors in the company's decision to shut down two coal-fired units in February 2019 at the Kentucky Utilities E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg in Central Kentucky.

A newer, larger unit on the property will continue to burn coal, and the company will also continue to operate a solar farm and hydroelectric plant there, company officials said.

“We are continually looking for opportunities to reduce costs for customers while maintaining a reliable supply of energy,” said Paul W. Thompson, LG&E and KU president and chief operating officer. “Retiring two of our oldest and most expensive coal-fired generating units, while also avoiding more costly environmental capital expenditures for compliance, benefits our customers.”

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The units date to 1957 and 1963 and are not equipped with all the latest air pollution controls.

Wallace McMullen, a longtime Sierra Club clean-energy advocate in Kentucky, welcomed the announcement.

"The closure of these ancient coal-burning power-plant units is good news both for Kentucky customers now and for the future of our grandchildren," he said. "Every retirement of a dirty old coal plant is a positive for healthier air and a healthier planet.

LED lighting and other energy efficiency measures taken by LG&E and KU Energy customers have saved some 500 megawatts of electricity, enough to avoid having to construct a new power plant, said Chris Whelan, vice president of communications for the company. The cost of energy-efficient LED lighting, in particular, has made a big difference in Kentucky and across the nation, she said.

The U.S. Department of Energy says widespread use of LED lighting has the greatest potential impact on energy savings in the United States, potentially cutting demand by the equivalent of 44 large power plants by 2027.

And even though President Trump has boasted how he's cut red-tape to boost coal, the company cited regulations as another factor. Storing coal-burning waste has become more expensive with new rules to protect water, and the company will save money by not having to expand a coal ash landfill by as much with the two units closed, Whelan said.

Based on those factors, the company determined the least expensive solution for customers is to retire two older coal-fired plants, Whelan said.

Wendy Bredhold with the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign said she was pleased to see the utility plan to burn less coal, adding that the club would like to see "a total phase-out of the plant." In July, Sierra Club and Kentucky Waterways Alliance – represented by Earthjustice – sued Kentucky Utilities, claiming coal-ash pollution in Herrington Lake.

With cleaner-burning natural gas now outcompeting coal on price, the company has been in a major transition.

The planned closures at Brown brings the total coal-fired generating units retired by KU and its sister utility, Louisville Gas and Electric Company, to eight in less than five years, including three units at its Cane Run plant in Louisville, where a new natural gas plant was constructed.

In 2011, LG&E-KU produced 98 of its electricity from coal, 1 percent from natural gas and 1 percent from renewable sources, Whelan said. The mix is now approximately 80 percent coal, 19 percent natural gas, and 1 percent renewables.

Reach reporter James Bruggers at 502-582-4645 and at jbruggers@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jbruggers.