DOE issues a fourth emergency order keeping Craig Unit 1 available
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readThe US Department of Energy has issued another emergency order keeping Unit 1 of the Craig Station coal plant in north-west Colorado available to run. The unit was scheduled to close at the end of
- Energy Secretary Chris Wright first ordered it kept available in December 2025 and did so twice more in 2026, which makes this the fourth order. It runs from 27 September to 25 December 2026.
The order is addressed to the plant's operator, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and to the co-owners and system operators named in it - Southwest Power Pool, Platte River Power Authority, Salt River Project, PacifiCorp and Public Service Company of Colorado - and directs them to take all measures necessary to keep the unit able to operate. SPP is told to use economic dispatch, running the unit when it is the cheaper option, which the department presents as a way to limit the cost.
DOE's reasoning is reliability: it says the unit will help address elevated risk in the Rocky Mountain region of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council during atypical weather. The release also frames the order politically, with the Secretary criticising state and federal efforts to retire generation, and it states that more than 17 gigawatts of coal capacity have been kept from retiring since 2025.
What it means
Emergency orders of this kind are issued under section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act and are time limited, which is why the same unit returns every few months with a fresh order and fresh dates. Each renewal is also a fresh decision point for the parties that carry the cost. How those costs are allocated is a matter for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and none of it appears in the department's announcement.
For planners in the region, the practical effect is that a retirement date is no longer a reliable input. Utilities, co-owners and developers of replacement resources are working with a unit that is officially retiring and yet available for another quarter at a time, which complicates both resource planning and the business case for whatever was meant to replace it.