They shut down a newish and fantastic coal plant on purpose.
15 years ago Xcel said spending $190 million by ratepayers - not stockholders) to upgrade existing power plants was in the ratepayers best interest to keep the units running through 2035.
As a regulated monopoly, Xcel is guaranteed Huge profits... Xcel does not care about the rate payers.
Comanche Generating Station uses Low-sulfur coal / is the largest power plant in Colorado. It is located near Pueblo..
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3676530/posts
Coal will ALWAYS be dirtier than natural gas. All power plants now have to meet the same clean Air regs. If coal cannot meet the same clean Air regs as natural gas even with hundreds of millions in triple layers of scrubbers then they will be shut down. The days of burning coal at atmospheric pressure and letting the stack gasses go unfiltered into the environment are over forever.
Coal can be cleaned up to meet clean Air regs that gas plants can hit without triple layers of scrubbers.
https://www.epa.gov/mats/cleaner-power-plants
These technologies can meet natural gas emission and therefore pass EPA regs. None of them are currently as cheap as gas plants likely never will be. So coal is on the way out it cannot meet the cleanliness of the alternatives and we the people have said clean Air is more important than burning coal via our representative Republic and the laws that our representatives have passed on our behalf. So unless coal can meet the current levels of emissions to be legal every one of them will be shut down when there permits expire. No renewals will be granted unless they meet the current laws for emission.
https://www.powermag.com/underground-coal-gasification-another-clean-coal-option/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352854016300833
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/07/31/net-zero-natural-gas-plant-the-game-changer/
https://wustl.resoluteinnovation.com/technologies/T018640_modular-pressurized-coal-combustion
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/kauo-ech060321.php