VCEA Opens 40th Annual Conference
May 21, 2019 - The future of coal was the topic of discussion Monday as the Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance (VCEA), the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB) and the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research (VCCER) opened their 40th annual conference and expo at the Meadowview Conference Center in Kingsport, Tennessee.
A variety of speakers -- from legislators and coal company executives to electric power generators and others -- addressed the topic, exploring the topic “Embarking on Coal’s New Era.” Day two of the conference gets underway tomorrow (Tuesday, May 21) at 8 a.m.
Two special presentations were made Monday and included a certificate of recognition given to Michelle Jenkins, who has been the district director for U.S. Congressman Morgan Griffith, who is leaving to accept a new position as a juvenile and domestic relations court judge in Lee, Scott and Wise counties. Jenkins was recognized for her dedication and service.
Also recognized posthumously was Robert Litton, a former VCEA chairman, who died last year. Litton’s wife, Jan and daughter, Samantha, were presented with a Virginia Senate resolution commemorating his life and service in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was remembered for his dedication to the industry and for his dedication to safety.
VCEA President J.P. Richardson, who is also vice president of operations for Metinvest Coal, opened the meeting, remarking on the challenges the industry has faced in the past 40 years and the significant technological changes which have occurred in that time.
“It’s been a roller coaster ride for the industry, but at the same time,” Richardson said, “coal production numbers are almost the same as they were 40 years ago.”
Ken Nemeth, SSEB secretary and executive director, noted coal has been and continues to be an integral part of this nation’s baseload power generation. Without coal, he said, resiliency and sustainability of the electric grid are lost. He noted fuel diversity continues to be important in meeting the needs of the United States when it comes to electricity.
“We need to be mindful of what coal does,” Nemeth said. “Coal is everywhere. We need to do greater public outreach about what coal provides. It has been the backbone of low cost, reliable and secure energy and will continue to be so in the future.”
Lou Hrkman, deputy assistant secretary of Clean Coal and Carbon Management at the U.S. Department of Energy, noted changes have occurred in the coal industry which now make delivery of carbon free fossil energy a possibility. He noted coal is both reliable and affordable and he added that fossil fuels will still account for more than three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption through 2040.
He told conference attendees that CO2 knows no borders and pointed out that India adds more coal to its base every day. In China, he said, new coal plants are being built and will supply energy needs there for the next 50 to 60 years.
“The U.S. is not the problem,” he said of carbon emissions. “Technology developed by DOE and perfected by industry is making a difference.”
Hrkman noted that emissions have fallen as coal generation has grown since 1970 with those emissions now 97 percent free of pollutants. He suggested that in the future, Coal First Technology will see smaller generation options come on line that are modular and highly efficient.
“The challenge for renewables is that they are not reliable,” Hrkman said, noting that the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, creating challenges for both renewable sources.
He suggested that grid reliability must be factored in, pointing to recent cold weather events which severely taxed the grid and its ability to deliver service. “It is time for a national discussion to stop taking energy security for granted,” Hrkman said.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito also spoke to conference attendees, noting coal has faced some stiff headwinds in recent years, but suggested as Hrkman had said, it was time to “wake up to reality” of what coal does for the nation. She spoke about recent announcements for new mining operations in her home state of West Virginia and noted that in 2018, the numbers showed the highest level of coal exports.
Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), she suggested needed to be incentivized and a commonsense approach to energy needs to be taken. She credited coal miners and the industry for doing their part to make the country great.
U.S. Congressman Phil Roe, of Tennessee, spoke about the increase in coal exports, noting that 2018 was the highest export level since 2013. The top importers, he said were India, the Netherlands and Japan.
He also spoke briefly about the Paris Climate Agreement, noting that one of the primary problems with it is that the Chinese did not pledge to cut emissions until 2030, while the U.S. was expected to cut them sooner. nuclear; 5.4 percent renewables; and 0.2 percent oil. However, he noted that during a January 2019 Polar Vortex, it was coal that delivered the most at 34 percent, compared to natural gas at 32 percent; nuclear at 24 percent; wind at 1 percent; and solar at 0 percent.
The grid first came on line, he noted, in 1927 and today utilizes an “all of the above” strategy in the delivery of electricity. The PJM mix, he noted is 28.7 percent coal; 31.2 percent gas; 34.5 percent
Resiliency and the ability of a fuel supply to be available when needed, he said, is critical.
“There is no immediate threat to the reliability of PJM to 2023,” he said based on PJM’s recent review of its system. To arrive at that conclusion, he said, PJM had run a series of 300 different scenarios to examine system reliability.
Richardson gave conference attendees an overview of Metinvest and spoke about the future of the coal market. He noted that metallurgical coal markets are tight. Analysts, he added, project that the met market will stand strong through 2020, with U.S. exports expected to stay fairly flat through the same period.
Jim Beamer with Dominion Energy, noted that unfortunately, as the discussion continues around fossil fuel usage, little thought seems to be given to the amount of time it takes to plan, permit and construct power generation plants. He spoke about the proud legacy Dominion has as a company in providing electric power generation and looking to the future how it has invested in projects like a pump storage project which will create jobs and grow the economy.
Debra Osborne, vice president of generating assets for Appalachian Power Company, noted coal is a part of APCO’s all of the above strategy which will continue to rely on coal. Its carbon reductions, she said, have come on line faster than first anticipated with plans to re-evaluate them in the next year and to set new goals as a result.
“Our generation will continue to count on coal,” she said.
The final speaker of the day was Michelle Bloodworth with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy.
Bloodworth noted that every kind of power generation has trade-offs. With the closures of coal-fired generation plants, however, she said, the country’s fuel supply is becoming less diverse and she suggested successful generation requires fuel diversity, reliability, resilience, fuel security and affordability. Ultimately, she said, that contributes to national security.
She said fuel resilience, which she described as the ability of a fuel to recover from an event like a polar vortex and continue to provide even when other fuel sources could not, was something that should be valued. Coal, she said, has those attributes and acts as an insurance policy for the grid to provide service when other fuel sources are unable to do so.
“All of you in this room are extremely important,” Bloodworth concluded. “We need baseload resources to remain a part of our ‘all of the above’ strategy. We need a level playing field for coal.”