[Slides]Assessing Early Retirement of Coal Generation – Patrick Barkey, Ph.D., University of Montana
Montana’s Colstrip power plant ceased the operation of two of its four units at the beginning of 2020, and this development is one of the latest in the trend of coal plant closures occurring across the United States.
REMI will be joined by Patrick Barkey, Ph.D., Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, on Wednesday, April 15th from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. (ET) for a guest webinar presentation, “Assessing Early Retirement of Coal Generation,” that explains the economic role of the Colstrip Steam Electric Station and similar power plants in terms of electricity generation and employment.
Dr. Barkey is prepared to overview the Colstrip power plant, its impact on annual household income, GDP, and employment in the county and Montana as a whole, and its share of electricity generation in the state.
This webinar presentation reviews three studies conducted by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research that analyzed the Colstrip plant’s impact resulting from its operation, as well as the effects of potential shutdowns and alternative investment efforts. Dr. Barkey will also forecast the future of the plant now that two of its four units have ceased production.
“Assessing Early Retirement of Coal Generation” includes demonstrations of how to use REMI modeling to evaluate the demographic and economic impacts of closing a major employer and energy generator in a given region, explanations of how to compare simulations of an economy against the baseline scenario, and the implications of halted power plant operations on a region’s future.
