Columbia’s century-old power plant halts burning coal

Columbia’s century-old first power plant is out of the coal business.

The city’s Municipal Power Plant burned its last load of coal on Sept. 22.

The plant’s two previously coal-fired boilers join a growing number of small, aging coal-fired units across the country that have stopped burning the fossil fuel, largely because of tighter environmental regulations on emissions.

A third boiler will continue to burn natural gas as the plant considers pivoting to burning waste wood, a renewable fuel.

Coal still will supply the vast amount of Columbia’s electricity through contracts with larger coal plants elsewhere.

Columbia Water and Light’s Connie Kacprowicz says the plant’s two coal-fired boilers simply were old, inefficient and costly to upgrade to meet EPA standards.