English

Abstract

The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research has conducted a survey of Kentucky\'s utility coal-fired power plants every 5 years since 1992. The survey includes a collection of the feed coal and the coal combustion products (CCPs). The latest collection was in 2012, with the accompanying information survey covering trends in 2011. Overall coal-fired energy production decreased, and the nature of the CCPs changed for a number of reasons, including but not limited to, increased gas production in the Appalachians, a series of warm winters, energy conservation, depletion of Appalachian coal reserves, and utility responses to regulations. From 2011 to 2012, Kentucky\'s coal-fired generation decreased from 91.656 to 82.762 GWh, while gas-fired generation rose from 1.163 to 2.401 GWh. About 10% of the CCPs produced in 2011 were sold compared with 30% in 2006. Some of this can be attributed to an increase in the amount of CCPs in certain categories, primarily flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum. The latter increase was due to regulations requiring the installation of FGD, while stagnation and decreases in sales were due to multiple factors, including the slowdown in housing construction and to the saturation of the Ohio River Valley market. Overall, comparing 2011 with 2006, all categories of CCPs experienced a decline in sales. The change from low-S to high-S coal with the installation of wet-FGD units has resulted in a shift from low-Fe to high-Fe fly ashes.