Earlier this week, Xcel Energy, together with several government agencies, filed a petition seeking Commission approval to keep Comanche Unit 2 open for another year after its currently planned retirement on December 31, 2025. The Comanche coal power plant in Pueblo comprises 3 units. Unit 1 (382-MW) retired in 2022. Unit 2 (396-MW) is scheduled to retire on December 31, 2025, and Comanche Unit 3 (854-MW) on January 1, 2031. In August, Unit 3, the largest and newest of the units at the plant, experienced an unexpected outage. The plant has remained offline since then. In October, Xcel notified the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Utility Consumer Advocate (UCA) that Unit 3 was extensively damaged and that the Company expects it to remain offline until June 2026. The new petition is a direct response to the unexpected outage of the Comanche Unit 3.
The Comanche Generating Station is the largest power plant in Colorado. According to data compiled by the Hitachi Energy Velocity Suite research team, as recently as 2018, the plant contributed 17.6% of the state’s electricity production. Today, it accounts for roughly 10% of Colorado’s power output.
Comanche Power Plant Unit 2 Retirement Extension Factsheet: https://lnkd.in/d5etVr2V
Charts – Hitachi Energy’s Velocity Suite, image – Comanche Generating Station (Vintage 2014) courtesy of Jeffery Beall and Wikimedia Commons