Combustion 2000 program to develop coal plant technology

Electric utilities consume nearly 800 million tons of coal annually. or about 8 5 8 of the coal used in the US. About 5 5 9 of all electricity generated in the U.S. is produced from coal. Although many electric utilities now have excess generating capacity. this situation is expected to change during the 1990s. According to the Energy Information Agency. the net effect of retiring aging power plants and adding new plants now under construction or due to come on-line by the mid-1990s will be to raise operable capacity to about 700.000 MW. This CBpacity increase is equivalent to an annual growth rate of about 0 .59. Electricity demand, however. is expected to grow by about 2-39 annually during the 1990s. a rate comparable to projected rates of overall economic growth. Load growth like this will require 20.000 MW per year of new capacity-equivalent to building twenty 1000-MW power plants a year. Excess capacity is projected to disappear by 1995. and significant shortfalls between power demand and generating capacity will occur by the turn of the century.