CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

The owners of a coal-fired power plant in Lansing, Tompkins County, intend to mothball the facility by mid-January, according to a filing made with state regulators Friday.

In a letter to the state Public Service Commissioner, a top executive for the new owners of the former AES Cayuga facility wrote that they intend to temporarily deactivate the plant’s two units by January 16.

“Cayuga Operating Company intends to take all steps within its control to avoid permanently retiring the facility by continuing to explore any and all alternatives with its suppliers and other parties, including reductions in its variable and fixed costs,” wrote Jerry Goodenough, the company’s chief operating officer.

Goodenough cited wholesale electricity prices that “are inadequate for the Cayuga facility to operate economically.” The mothballing, he wrote, is a way to put the plant in “protective lay-up to limit the costs that are incurred at the facility.”

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