East Kentucky Power Cooperative bought 220,000 st of Northern Appalachian barge coal from Alliance Resource Partners and its subsidiaries for a six-month delivery period, according to a regulatory filing.
The Winchester, Kentucky-based utility told the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) it bought 220,000 st of 12,600 Btu/lb coal from the producer's Tunnel Ridge coal mine in Ohio County, West Virginia, through two separate contracts.
Coal deliveries for both contracts started on June 1 and will continue through November 30 to the Spurlock Station plant near Charleston Bottoms, Kentucky.
The first contract was for up to 120,000 st of coal, or 20,000 st/month, and was sold by Alliance subsidiary River View Coal. For June deliveries, the base price was 171.07 cents/MMBtu, or $43.11/st, but the price for the remaining months will be determined based on adjusted base prices, including transportation adjustments and the quality and source of the coal.
The second contract was between EKPC and Alliance Coal and was for up to 90,000 st of coal, or 15,000 st/month. The base price for June deliveries was 181.94 cents/MMBtu, or $45.85/st, but the remaining months will also be determined based on adjustments.
The total cost for the coal deliveries in June was nearly $1.55 million, or $44.28/st.
All shipments (minimum 1,550 st) will be loaded in Ingram Barge Co. barges at the Tunnel Ridge Dock on the Ohio River.
Specifications for the contracts were a monthly weighted average heat content of 12,600 Btu/lb, maximum sulfur content level of 5.2 lb SO2/MMBtu, maximum moisture content of 6.25% and maximum ash content of 9.25%.
All shipments will be sampled and analyzed by the seller and any coal with an average heat content less than 11,000 Btu/lb, sulfur content above 7 lb SO2/MMBtu, moisture above 12.5%, or maximum ash content higher than 15% will be rejected, according to the filing.
Through the first four months of 2020, the Spurlock Station plant took delivery of 1.07 million st of 11,585 Btu/lb coal from eight suppliers at an average delivered price of $42.96/st, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
Roughly 413,691 st of the coal came from Alliance at an average cost of $44.13/st. However, no coal was delivered to EKPC from Tunnel Ridge in the first four months of 2020.
