Dominion Energy on Wednesday will deactivate its two remaining coal units at its Chesterfield Power Station. The units, which have been in operation for more than 50 years, sit on the banks of the James River near the Dutch Gap Conservation Area, about one mile east of the intersection of Interstate 95 and Route 288.
These are the third and fourth coal units to be taken offline at Dominion’s facility in Chesterfield County in the last decade. The previous two, also built in the 1960s, were retired in late 2018. As the price of natural gas has fallen, coal has become a less cost-effective fossil fuel for generating power at the utility scale.
Closing a couple of coal units is a small but important step in a transition toward an electric grid with zero atmospheric carbon emissions, with the goals of improving air quality and slowing planetary warming.
DANIEL SANGJIB MIN, Times-Dispatch
A full decommissioning of the two units will follow. This does not mean the demolition of the units, but according to Rick Boyd, director of generation projects at Dominion, it leaves the units “cold and dark.”
Decommissioning involves removing all utility connections to the units, leaving their shells in place but with no moving parts: much like an exterior workshop or a backyard shed with no power, no water and no fuel.
Boyd emphasized that the process is more than just turning off a switch: “There are still things to clean up: oil, grease, fluids. The interior also needs to be cleaned so the facility is safe and secure, which might take up to six months.”
Two units that run on natural gas and fuel oil will continue to operate at Dominion’s Chesterfield Power Station.
ALEXA WELCH EDLUND, TIMES-DISPATCH
Although they are nonoperational, the previous two coal units that were taken offline have not been fully decommissioned. According to Jeremy Slayton at Dominion, some steps have been taken with those two older units, but the remaining ones will be taken alongside the newer units.
Some coal will remain on-site immediately after the units go offline, but Slayton says the remaining coal either will be sold or disposed of via the “appropriate environmental regulations.
Demolition of the units is more cumbersome, so that will not likely happen soon, as the separate parts of the facility are deeply interconnected. Slayton continues, “Many of the systems are shared between multiple units. Because of that integration, the systems and equipment associated with individual units will need to be separated or isolated prior to decommissioning and demolition.”
Two other units, which run on natural gas and fuel oil, will continue to operate at the Chesterfield facility. They remain integrated into the larger regional electric grid that encompasses Dominion’s service area in Virginia — known as the PJM Interconnection.
Closing a couple of coal units is a small but important step in a transition toward an electric grid with zero atmospheric carbon emissions, with the goals of improving air quality and slowing planetary warming.
DANIEL SANGJIB MIN, Times-Dispatch
In early 2020, in preparation for the units’ retirement, Dominion made the PJM operators aware of the upcoming decommissioning. As a result, no immediate change is expected in the reliability or the cost of electricity to people or businesses getting their electricity from Dominion.
The price of solar energy continues to drop, allowing the competitive development of new solar energy facilities to help make up the difference. Earlier this year, the State Corporation Commission approved Dominion’s most recent annual solar proposal — for 13 new solar and energy storage projects.
“Solar is fantastic,” added Boyd.
Additional energy storage facilities, like utility scale batteries, are projected in the years to come. And wind power is moving forward, as permitting and regulatory work ahead of Dominion’s offshore wind project remains on schedule. Construction of that project east of Virginia Beach is expected to begin next year, becoming operational in 2026.
Closing a couple of coal units is a small but important step in a transition toward an electric grid with zero atmospheric carbon emissions, with the goals of improving air quality and slowing planetary warming.
But given the numerous energy generation scenarios outlined in the past six months by Dominion, either in its 2022 Climate Report or its more recent Integrated Resource Plan, there are still more questions than answers about how that transition will go in Virginia over the coming decades.
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