S&P Global Market Intelligence ($):

FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. has shut down nearly half of its coal capacity as the bankrupt power provider recently deactivated units 1 and 2 at its Bruce Mansfield coal plant in Beaver County, Pa.

The retirement of 1,660 MW of coal capacity reduces the output of what was once the company’s largest coal plant to a single 830-MW unit. FirstEnergy Solutions, or FES, filed a deactivation notice with PJM Interconnection in November 2018 reflecting the Feb. 5 retirement of the plant’s oldest units.

The deactivation comes earlier than originally anticipated. In late August 2018, FES said it notified PJM of its plans to shut down more than 4,000 MW of coal and oil capacity in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 2021 and 2022, including the 2,490-MW Bruce Mansfield coal plant, because of unfavorable market conditions.

While the initial plan was to deactivate all three units at Bruce Mansfield in June 2021, an FES spokesman said the company revised the plan because “units 1 and 2 had been operating at extremely limited capacity since January 2018.” Unit 3 is still expected to operate until June 2021.

Bruce Mansfield is directly owned and operated by FES subsidiary FirstEnergy Generation LLC.

Murray Energy Corp. was the primary supplier of coal to the Mansfield power plant in 2018, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. Murray Energy’s Marshall County mine in West Virginia supplied the power plant.

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