Dominion looks to sell plants in deregulated states

Virginia power company Dominion announced on September 6, 2012, that it is planning to sell three fossil fuel generation plants located in Massachusetts and Illinois.

One of the stations is located in Somerset, Massachusetts, and has the capacity to generate 1,536 megawatts with three coal-fired units. Another power station in Kincaid, Illinois, is up for sale, which has two 579-megawatt coal-fired units, and a third facility near Chicago will also be sold off.

“These are excellent, well-operating and well-maintained facilities,” said Thomas Farrell, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion. “State-of-the-art emissions controls have been or are in the process of being installed at the stations’ coal-fired units, which are fully compliant with stringent, new federal air regulations.”

The company expects the sales to finalize in early 2013, and the proceeds from the sales will be put toward the company’s other businesses and to lower debt.

Illinois and Massachusetts both have progressive energy deregulation laws in place, allowing customers to shop for electricity rates in the advent of a price increase, which at times may stem from reorganizations among utilities and power companies.