Caroline D. Dorsa
Analyst · Stephen Byrd of Morgan Stanley
Sure. So -- yes, absolutely, Stephen. And just as Ralph said, so we did have the New Jersey coal units running on coal a little bit more than half the time. And in fact, the Mercer unit ran on coal almost all of the time. Hudson, a little less so, just as it was getting through some Sandy-related repairs. So we have seen the economics and the coal dynamics improve in terms of the ability to run coal, particularly as the prices moved up and gas prices moved up in the winter period. But as we said earlier, as I mentioned in my remarks, we're still not at the point for gas prices where you're seeing our coal with all of the scrubbing that we have from the back-end technologies dispatch ahead of the gas-fired units. That would be more like gas prices of about $5.50 and we're not there, as you well know. But in those periods, where we've had an increased demand, higher near-term prices, higher near-term power prices, the coal units have dispatched and nicely in terms of dispatching on coal. Now of course, Bridgeport Harbor doesn't run on gas. It only runs on coal. And that was running, as we mentioned and as I think you saw in the attachment, that was running more as well. Also, keep in mind, of course, the Pennsylvania units only run on coal, and they were running well. In terms of the types of coal -- now this is news -- this is not news, these are things that I'm sure you know. Once we finished the back-end technologies at Hudson, it no longer had to run on Adaro coal, so it's running on tap [ph] coal, so that's cheaper. Bridgeport Harbor only runs on Adaro, as you know, that continues as we had always had it. Keep in mind, about 2 years ago, we changed that contract. So it no longer has volume requirements for us to build. And then, Mercer, after its back-end technology, still runs on net coal but a less expensive net coal than prior. So through our back-end technologies, we've reduced that really -- the kinds of coal in terms of cost that we need at those facilities, Bridgeport Harbor being the exception. And then, if these market dynamics have come back, we've been pleased to see those units run on coal. We're still very well hedged with coal in terms of what we have in inventory, but it's nice to see that coal being burned. So I think we're in a pretty good position, again, not yet for coal dispatching ahead of gas, but obviously our back-end technologies were done sooner than others, who may have to do that in the future as they make decisions about their units.