New Vision for Coal Outlined at 39th Virginia Coal & Energy Conference

 

 

May 22, 2018 - A new sense of optimism within the coal industry was repeated by speaker after speaker Monday as the 39th annual Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance conference and expo got underway at the MeadowView Conference Center in Kingsport, Tennessee.

The two-day conference, with a theme of “the New Vision for Coal,” is being held in conjunction with the Southern States Energy Board’s meeting of the Committee on Clean Coal Energy Policies and Technologies. Congressman Phil Roe, first district Tennessee representative in the U.S. House of Representatives; and Morgan Griffith, ninth district Virginia representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, delivered keynote sessions on the first day of the conference.

 

Also speaking Monday were Steve Winberg, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy-Fossil Energy; Jack Richardson, Warrior Met Coal; William Murray, Dominion Energy; Israel O’Quinn, Virginia state delegate; Chris Beam, Appalachian Power Company; and Darlene Phillips, PJM Interconnection.

 

Steve Winberg speaking at the 39th Annual Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance Conference and Expo

VCEA Chairman Jeff Taylor welcomed attendees to this year’s conference. Eddie Joe Williams, a federal representative on the Southern States Energy Board, also provided brief opening remarks, noting coal is an integral part of baseload energy generation and a commodity essential to the economy of the United States. He called for greater public outreach and the need to ensure all realize the role coal plays in everyday life.

Roe noted there is new optimism in the industry and in the country as a result of administration changes and he conveyed his belief in an all of the above energy policy. He briefly outlined some of the Trump Administration successes thus far and talked about the regulatory reform and its positive impact. He concluded his remarks, thanking members of the industry present for all they do every day.

Griffith agreed, adding, “we are rebuilding the American economy and using fuels like coal to do it.” He talked about new source performance standards and new source review and how those are impacting not just power plants, but manufacturers. He talked about the Clean Air Act and its impact, but suggested that impact should not be to kill American businesses. 

Winberg applauded the VCEA for its efforts in the public education and outreach arena, pointing to the alliance’s ongoing and successful annual Project Coal to Electricity teacher education program. He said Secretary of Energy Rick Perry also recently called upon the need for energy education.

“We need them to understand that coal is important and vital to our economy and the global economy,” Winberg said. “This program should serve as a model of what we need to do not just in the U.S., but on a global basis.”

Winberg noted that the cooperation the department of energy has with people on the ground doing the work day in and day out is vital.

“Our work is only as effective as the strength of our cooperation and collaboration,” Winberg said. “We have reasons to be optimistic. It is fair to say things have changed. We have a president who wants to revitalize coal, not revile coal; who recognizes we have vast resources in the United States to develop and to export.”

Energy demand, he suggested, has gone up as American manufacturing is brought back.

“Increased energy production is critical to our growth as a country,” Winberg said. “To realize our full potential, we have to tackle regulations. We have a lot of bad policy to undo to remove the barriers to utilize our abundant resources.”

Part of the future for coal units, he said, resides in the building of smaller 300-350 Megawatt units and a fundamental change in how they operate to be load following as more renewables are added to the energy mix.

“We need to get on the task of designing the next generation of coal technologies,” Winberg said. He also called on the need for continued carbon capture, storage and utilization research.

Richardson gave a brief overview of Warrior Met Coal and then turned his remarks to the state of the industry. “Is coal making a comeback?” he asked. “The answer,” he said, “is ‘yes’.”

He told those present that fair and balanced regulations do make a difference, adding, “I think it’s safe to say the foundation has now been laid to rebuild and sustain this nation’s coal industry.”

“No one here in this room, or outside this room, has a crystal ball,” Richardson continued. “We can’t predict what will happen five minutes from now, much less in five months or five years from now, but I think we all feel hopeful that things are moving in the right direction at present. I would also say there is more promise for the future.

“Coal has been the fossil fuel which got us to where we are as a nation today,” Richardson said. “It’s what continues to help us to grow and improve; and it will be the fuel in the future that continues to play a major role in keeping this great nation energy independent and energy secure.”

Murray said it was apparent coal had turned the corner this past year and that things were again looking up. “The U.S. is an energy super power again,” he said.

He spoke of the electrification of transportation and what it has meant and will mean to the utility industry in terms of increased energy demand.

“Electrification of transportation is one of the most dramatic trends we are seeing in the energy business,” he said. A public that is increasingly intolerant when it comes to electrical outages makes reliability even more  important and serves to emphasize the need for a diverse portfolio of energy forms to meet those needs.

“Our future is in our hands,” Murray said. “We just need to get out of our own way.”

O’Quinn spoke briefly about the recently ended Virginia General Assembly session and the governor’s signing of Coal Tax Credit legislation. Budgeted funding for the dredging of the Port of Hampton Roads also bodes well for the export industry, he said, noting that when the project is complete, it will create one of the deepest, widest ports giving the East Coast even more to offer when it comes to export capabilities. 

Beam noted in his remarks that technologies are changing fast and in the process are changing cost structure as well as the expectations of society. He said smaller, modular coal plants which are located closer to the end user will likely be the way the delivery of energy comes in the future as improvements are made in efficiency, emissions and flexibility. “We need engineering break-throughs on this,” he said.

Beam spoke about the AEP/APCO fuel mix and concluded, “AEP depends on coal now and will for decades to come as we respond to the changing needs of society and our customers.”

The final speaker of the day Monday was Phillips, who talked about the operation of the PJM Interconnection power grid. What PJM’s job boils down to, she explained is “matching energy supply with energy demand on a real-time basis.” She gave an overview of how the grid operates and noted that currently, baseload energies don’t move as quickly as they need to based on changes in how the grid is operated. Despite that, she was quick to add, “no one in this room or at PJM thinks coal is going away.”

The challenge, she said, is getting the price right, reacting to demand, recognizing the importance of fuel diversity while at the same time thinking more about fuel security, availability and reliability.

The conference continues Tuesday with discussion on opportunities for metallurgical coal and new framework for coal markets and efficient coal power technologies.

 

Sponsors of this year’s conference and expo include Dominion Energy, Jennmar Corp., ORICA, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, Troutman Sanders, Appalachian Power, Carter Machinery Co., Inc., CONTURA Energy, Omega Coal, United Central Industrial Supply, JH Fletcher Co., Landon Wyatt, Oliver Coal Sales, Red River Coal, SunCoke Energy-Jewell Coke and Wellmore Coal Co.

 

Attendees at the 39th Annual Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance Conference and Expo 

 

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