Colorado Springs Utilities recently committed to closing the coal-fired portions of Martin Drake Power Plant by 2023 and investing significantly more in renewable energy in coming decades. Here’s a look at some of the plant’s inner workings and what will change. (Video by Skyler Ballard)

New natural gas generators expected to be the last fossil fuel equipment Colorado Spring Utilities will purchase are anticipated no later than 2022, moving in next to the massive coal pile that has long fed the downtown Martin Drake Power Plant. 

Utilities expects solar, wind and utility-scale batteries to largely replace traditional fossil-fuel generation and serve city growth into the coming decades because they have fallen dramatically in price and are likely to continue getting cheaper, said Michael Avanzi, manager of energy planning and innovation for the city-owned utility.  

“We will continue to evaluate the most cost-effective option that makes the most sense for us,” he said. 

The Utilities board, made up of the Colorado Springs City Council, voted in June to close the coal-fired generation at Martin Drake by 2023 and replace the two operating coal units with natural gas generators that will be later moved off site. The council voted to close the plant 12 years earlier than previously planned because of the falling cost of renewable power. Wind generation has fallen about 70% in price, and solar generation has declined about 90% over the last decade, Avanzi said.

“Where coal is holding steady … wind and solar are declining rapidly,” he said. 

Colorado Springs Utilities commits to closing coal-fired generation at Drake Power Plant

Wind turbines, solar arrays and utility-scale batteries are in the long term cheaper for utilities than running a large coal plant because they require far fewer workers and there are no fuel costs, he said. Rather than building the new generation, Utilities contracts with other companies which take on the upfront construction costs and Utilities locks in a flat energy price for 20 to 25 years, avoiding the volatility of the fossil fuel prices, Avanzi said.  

Drake’s closure will not trigger rate hikes because of the savings in operation and maintenance costs Utilities is expecting, Avanzi said. Drake employees are expected to be transitioned to other departments within Utilities to avoid layoffs, CEO Aram Benyamin has said previously. 

The economics, as well as stricter state air quality regulations, have prompted several other major utilities in the state to start more aggressively transitioning to renewable energy. Tri-State Generation and Transmission, the electricity generator for Mountain View Electric Association in El Paso County, said in January that it would close its New Mexico coal-fired power plant this year and its Colorado coal plants and coal mine by 2030. The closures were expected to cut Tri-States coal emissions in Colorado and New Mexico by 100% and keep its rates stable, according to a news release. 

Xcel Energy, the largest electric utility in the state, expects to transition to 55% percent renewable energy by 2026 and achieve 100% carbon-free generation by 2050. 

RELATED: Colorado Springs Utilities preparing for 80% carbon reduction by 2030, early closure of Drake

Utilities’ generation is now 20% renewable after agreeing to a five-year contract last week to purchase 60 megawatts of wind from northeast Colorado, according to a news release. By 2050, utilities expects to transition to 90% renewable energy, with wind accounting for the largest portion of the new generation. 

Climate concerns

Many of those who urged the closure of Drake in Colorado Springs this year called for action to cut carbon and address climate change.

Retired University of Colorado at Colorado Springs professor Carole Huber was among those who called for Drake’s early closure to fight climate change and urged her students to lobby the Utilities board. 

“It’s an existential threat for them and for future generations,” said Huber, a former geography and environmental studies professor. 

In her decades of living in Colorado Springs, she’s observed some shifting patterns driven by climate change such as hotter summer days and plants blooming earlier. 

“During the summer, in particular, I feel the difference,” she said. 

Eliminating the carbon produced by Drake will help in the fight against climate change, but addressing transportation is a much bigger issue because it is a more substantial source of greenhouse gases, she said.

In 2019, Drake emitted 871,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases or about 2.6% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the state, said John Putnam, director of environmental programs at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The state estimates transportation is responsible for about 33% of the greenhouse gases this year.

Closing Drake could also help the area abide by federal ozone limits by eliminating the emission of more than 1,000 tons of nitrogen oxides per year and more than 170 tons per year of sulfur dioxide, said Amy Trinidad, a spokeswoman for Utilities. Ozone near the ground is formed when pollutants such as nitrogen oxides react with sunshine. High levels of ozone can make it difficult to breathe by causing airway inflammation and reduced lung function.

Ozone is difficult to keep in check because so many factors contribute to it, including wildfires that might be out of the area.

The only day this summer the Colorado Springs area exceeded federal ozone standards was on June 17, when heavy smoke from fires in southwest Colorado and Arizona blew into the area, Putnam said. 

Reclaiming Drake

Utilities expects to hire a contractor to tear down Drake, and crews might have to excavate the site to remove the coal that’s been compacted on the site over time, said Somer Mese, interim north district manager for Utilities. Fully removing the plant could take a couple of years, she said. The state health department will be overseeing the closure of the plant to ensure workers and neighbors are safe throughout the process, Putnam said. 

It’s possible the new natural gas generators could coexist with coal-burning generation during a transition period, Mese said. 

“There may be a time when we are still working on construction and we are still burning coal to make that transition seamless to make sure people have power from one source or another,” she said. 

Once transmission lines are built, the natural gas generators will be moved off the Drake site. It is yet to be determined what could be done with the Drake site once the coal-burning units, cooling towers, coal pile and remnants of the plant are gone.