LG&E and KU’s coal-fired Mill Creek Generating Station in September 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)
Kentucky’s largest utility is proposing to delay the retirement of a coal-fired power plant unit and move forward with building billions of dollars of gas-fired power generation as part of a proposed settlement agreement before the state utility regulator.
The proposed settlement offered by Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) this week would build two new natural gas-fired power plants, each with a capacity of 645 megawatts, costing a total of more than $2.7 billion. Mill Creek 2, one of four coal-fired units at the utility’s Mill Creek Generating Station, would have its planned retirement delayed from 2027 until one of the new gas-fired power plants is operational in 2031…