I wonder how much power they'd have to produce in order to generate a billion dollars of profit just to break even.
I'm guessing you probably don't run a business.
And I'm guessing you don't know much about the generation buisness. Watch the headlines, somebody will install scrubbers on this.
A lot of people have the impression that a power plant is a license to print money. It isn't, those guys walk a very tight line. I had the experience of sitting for a while next to the guy whose job it was to make the daily deals that kept a power plant running. Some days they are making money, some days they lose a small amount, but its better to keep running, some days they shut down because the money isn't there.
They are constantly calculating the cost of fuel versus the price offered on the market, and some days they run, and some days they don't. This is a pretty big plant, not a peaker. But the economics are always borderline.
Utilities can pass through these costs to their rate payers. Taking 1500 mw off line doesn't make sense.