Dive Brief:
- The Martin Drake coal-fired power plant in Colorado Springs was forced offline on Monday when a four-alarm fire burned through it.
- The fire sparked an outage that left 22,000 customers without power for about 35 minutes. All employees made it out of the building safely, though one contractor was taken to the hospital.
- Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), which owns and operates the 254-MW Martin Drake plant, will rely on its other power plants to meet demand while Martin Drake is shut down. If needed, the utility can also buy additional power on the spot market.
Dive Insight:
The unexpected shutdown puts Colorado Springs in a bad situation. Martin Drake provided base load power to the city at a lower cost than any other plant in CSU's portfolio.
While an investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing, local fire chief Chris Riley said "there is significant damage to one of the turbines and significant damage to the control deck." The plant will be "inoperable for quite some time," Riley said, though he would not estimate when it would be back up and running.
Depending on how long Drake is out and which turbine is damaged, CSU will either buy power on the spot market or enter into power purchasing agreements to meet expected summer peak demand.
But the plant's fate was up for debate even before the fire. A 2013 study confirmed that the plant was cost-effective, but raised concerns about its environmental impact. A decision on Drake's fate was expected later this year.