Silver Lake Power Plant to be retired - KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and Sports

Silver Lake Power Plant to be retired

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ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) -- The future of the Silver Lake Power Plant has been decided.

The Rochester Public Utilities Board voted unanimously Tuesday to shut down the 63-year-old facility by Dec. 2015.

The decision is in response to the EPA's Clean Air Act, increased regulations on coal energy-generation and expenses.

Staff will now put together a plan to eventually shut down the Silver Lake Power Plant as far as generating electricity effective Dec. 31, 2015.

"We sell electricity into the grid and then we buy electricity off of the grid and it costs us more to generate electricity than we can go out on the grid and buy the electricity coming back in," said Jerry Williams, president of the Rochester Public Utilities Board.

After Dec. 31, 2015, the plant will continue to generate steam energy for Mayo Clinic by using natural gas.

The next step for RPU is to decide how to transition their employees at the plant before the end of 2015.

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