WASHINGTON – Representatives of the power and rail industries expressed guarded optimism Thursday about coal deliveries needed to generate electricity for Minnesota this winter.
Speaking to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), officials from BNSF Railway, Minnesota Power and the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator agreed that stockpiles of coal, which had been critically low at many electricity generating plants, have grown recently.
But they warned that unexpected bad weather or unanticipated shipping problems on the state's overcrowded rail system could change that.
"We've got a stockpile that gets us into the coldest months of the winter," Dave McMillan, Minnesota Power's vice president of external affairs, told the Star Tribune after his FERC testimony. "But we need assurances that it doesn't start dropping when Feb. 1 gets here."
McMillan had described to the FERC board how his utility got down to a four-day supply of coal at one point in the past year and had to use trucks to carry in emergency supplies.
McMillan also told the board that recent coal delivery problems forced Minnesota Power to take the "unprecedented step" of shuttering four production facilities. He said the utility is looking for a government-monitored coal delivery recovery plan from BNSF — a plan the railroad has resisted.
"Lack of a recovery plan does not give us confidence that the supply will continue," McMillan explained to the FERC board.
Todd Ramey, representing Midcontinent Systems, the nonprofit that operates the electrical grid in Minnesota and the rest of the Upper Midwest, told the board that delayed coal deliveries have not yet left utilities unable to supply customers with electricity.