This Coal Transition Commission report takes a meaningful step towards closing the knowledge gap that currently exists around the role of coal flexibility in coal-to-clean transitions.
The report concludes that, in some circumstances, operating coal assets flexibly could support a more rapid integration of renewables in the near term as alternative sources of flexibility are built out, so long as robust guardrails are in place to manage the risk of unduly prolonging coal use. The paper examines the system-level and asset level circumstances under which coal flexibility may be considered, the implementation challenges, and the guardrails that need to be in place.