The majority of coal delivered to power plants now comes from the Powder River Basin region, as power generators have shifted away from more expensive Central Appalachian coal.
Yet the PRB saw a slowdown in deliveries in 2013, with a total of 373 million tons of coal to power plants, a decline of 2.5% compared to 2012. Plants within the nation's ISO and RTO regions were the destination for almost 70.61% of the coal deliveries in 2013, according to SNL Energy figures.
ISO or RTO regions are wholesale power markets and do not include many states in the Southeast and West.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc, the largest among all the ISO and RTO regions in terms of 2013 coal deliveries, received the majority of its coal from the PRB and Illinois Basin.
In 2013, about 67.41% of coal delivered to plants in MISO originated from the PRB, a decrease compared to 2012 when PRB coal accounted for 68.63% of total deliveries. The Illinois Basin, meanwhile, saw its share of deliveries to MISO increase to 19.66% in 2013 from 17.72% in 2012, SNL Energy stats show.
The 2,453-MW Labadie power plant in MISO, located in Missouri, received the largest amount of coal among all plants in the region in 2013. The plant got all of its 9.5 million tons of coal from the PRB.
Demand for coal is shrinking in the US despite it remaining the largest source of fuel for electric generation.
According to SNL Energy’s analysis of fuel delivery data from monthly Form EIA-923 filers, roughly 779 million tons of coal were delivered to domestic power plants in 2013, a drop of 1.75% compared to coal deliveries in 2012.
