Luminant To Retire Monticello Power Plant

Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra Energy, today announced plans to retire all three units at its Monticello Power Plant in Titus County, Texas.

In total, approximately 1,800 MW of power will be taken offline in January of 2018.

Curt Morgan, Vistra Energy's president and chief executive officer, said, "[T]he market's unprecedented low power price environment has profoundly impacted [Monticello's] operating revenues and no longer supports continued investment."

Luminant had previously announced plans in 2011 to shut down units 1 and 2 due to environmental regulations, but subsequently maintained operations as such regulations were challenged and later proposed to be withdrawn

As part of the retirement process, today Luminant filed a notice with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which will trigger a reliability review. If ERCOT determines the units are not needed for reliability following this 60-day review, Luminant expects to stop plant operations on Jan. 4, 2018.

Vistra estimates it will record one-time charges of approximately $20-25 million in the third quarter of 2017 related to the retirement, including employee-related severance costs and non-cash charges for materials inventory and the acceleration of Luminant's mining reclamation obligations.