Review of Cleco Power's 2021 Draft IRP
Sierra Club
Project completed.
Sierra Club engaged Synapse Energy Economics (Synapse) to participate in Cleco Power LLC’s integrated resource planning (IRP) process. Synapse reviewed Cleco's Draft 2021 IRP and it's associated workpapers to produced a report detailing concerns with Cleco's assumptions. Among Synapse's concerns included Cleco's proposal to retrofit coal-fired Madison 3 with carbon capture and sequestration without any quantitative analysis to show that the project is part of a least-cost portfolio of resources for ratepayers or that it is the best low-carbon option for the Company. Synapse recommended that Cleco model scenarios in its final IRP that would allow the model to select between retirement, conversion to gas, and CCS retrofit at Madison 3.