The former Milliken Station/AES Cayuga coal-burning power plant in Lansing has had a busy news year, but a very quiet year as far as generating electricity. It sounded like investors were bringing back signs of life, but now those investors are mothballing the plant, shutting it down but keeping it available.
"Cayuga Operating Company intends to take all steps within its control to avoid permanently retiring the facility by continuing to explore any and all alternatives with its suppliers and other parties, including reductions in its variable and fixed costs," wrote Jerry Goodenough, the company's chief operating officer.
Goodenough cited wholesale electricity prices that "are inadequate for the Cayuga facility to operate economically." The mothballing, he wrote, is a way to put the plant in "protective lay-up to limit the costs that are incurred at the facility."
This will mean a lot fewer trains through the city of Ithaca, which also makes me worry about the long-run future of that track and because of that, the Cargill Salt mine - does anything else move on that line?
Posted by simon at July 20, 2012 1:43 PM in energy
As far as I know, coal in, salt out, and that's it.