Empire District Electric, the Missouri-based regulated utility acquired earlier this year by Canada’s Algonquin Power & Utilities, has confirmed plans to close a coal plant and buy 800MW of wind capacity – telling regulators it’s the only financially sensible thing to do in light of where prices have gone.
The plan represents a dramatic pivot for Empire, which as of 2015 had just 255MW of wind on its system, all of it bought through purchase-purchase agreements – and which still relies heavily on coal for its electricity.
