In a recently published Arkansas Business interview, Entergy Arkansas CEO Laura Landreaux said the state’s largest electrical utility should know by the end of 2024 what its replacement strategies will be when it shuts down its Independence County coal-fired plant in 2030.
“That’s all under development now,” Landreaux told the Little Rock-based publication in an interview published Monday. (A subscription and/or email address may be required for Arkansas Business.) “We’re developing what we call our 2024 Integrated Resource Plan, a plan that we do every three years. We look at the load we have coming online, the resources we have, and what we’re going to need to build.”
Some of that power is certain to be solar, Landreaux said, but since solar units only operate when the sun is shining, other renewable sources will also help fill part of the gap. Once the Integrated Resource Plan is completed at the end of the year, Entergy Arkansas will explain to the public how the capacity will be replaced, she said.
Before the Independence plant in Newark stops burning coal, the utility’s Redfield plant is scheduled to shut down in 2028.
According to the article, the two plants provide Entergy Arkansas customers with about 14% of their electrical supply. The utility agreed to stop coal generation at the two sites in a 2018 federal consent decree.
Image: Entergy Arkansas
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