Nevada Mohave Coal Plant to Be Decommissioned

The Mohave Generating Station, a 1,580-MW coal-fired power plant that operated from 1971 to 2005 in Laughlin, Nev., will be decommissioned and removed from the site, the plant’s four owners said last week.

Southern California Edison Co. (SCE), Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, NV Energy, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said in a joint statement they would dismantle nongenerating equipment and facilities during the coming months. Then, in 2010, the plant’s generating equipment will be removed and its operating permits terminated. The site’s transmission switchyard and some related facilities will remain in place.

The companies said that no decision had been made about the final disposition of the plant property. Among the options being considered by Mohave’s owners are the sale of the site and construction of a renewable energy project.

The two-unit Mohave station was shuttered in December 2005 for several reasons, including a court decree initiated by environmentalists. The plant’s owners said that the closure was mainly due to the “lack of new water and coal agreements needed to proceed with emissions control upgrades required for operation after 2005.”

SCE said separately on its website that the station had made “a significant contribution to the power supply of Southern California and the Southwest from 1971 until its closure.” It added that mining and processing of the low-sulfur coal (from the Black Mesa coal mine in northeast Arizona) that fueled the Mohave plant contributed substantially to the economies of the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe in northeastern Arizona. “The coal was mixed with water and delivered to the Mohave plant via a 275-mile pipeline—the only pipeline coal delivery system in the world,” SCE said.

Source: SCE, NV Energy, SRP, Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power