Bailly Generating Station
Bailly Generating Station in 2013
Country	United States
Location	Burns Harbor, Indiana
Coordinates	41°38′36″N 87°07′22″W / 41.64333°N 87.12278°W / 41.64333; -87.12278
Status	Decommissioned
Commission date	Unit 1: 1962 Unit 2: 1968
Decommission date	Units 1–2: May 31, 2018
Owner(s)	Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO)
Operator(s)	Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO)
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Coal
Cooling source	Lake Michigan
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	604 MW
External links
Commons	Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Bailly Generating Station was a 604 megawatt (MW) coal power plant located in Burns Harbor, Indiana, on the shore of Lake Michigan adjacent to the Port of Indiana. The plant, which began operation in 1962^[1] and tripled its capacity in 1968, is owned and operated by the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), an electric-utility operating division of the energy holding company NiSource.^[1] The plant ceased coal-fired electrical generation on May 31, 2018.

History

The Bailly Station is named in honor of Joseph Bailly, a fur trader and pioneer settler of northwest Indiana. It is located in an industrial park sited within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The plant's 300-acre site^[1] reflects a belief, held by the state of Indiana and the United States Congress in the early 1960s, that the Dunes-Lake Michigan shoreline should be shared between environmental preservation and heavy industry.

Since January 2011, Bailly has operated under the terms of a legal settlement between NIPSCO and the United States Environmental Protection Agency in compliance with the Clean Air Act.^[1] Under the terms of the settlement, NiSource would have been required to invest approximately $200 million in new capital infrastructure to be retrofitted onto Bailly to capture sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxide (NO_x).

Closure of coal units

Citing growing environmental and regulatory burdens, NIPSCO announced plans in August 2016 to shut down the Bailly Generating Plant.^[2] The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) approved of the shut down in December 2016 after it was determined the plant's future closure would not affect the grid's reliability.^[3] The plant shut down electrical generation from coal on May 31, 2018. Nevertheless, the site will continue to operate a natural gas peaker plant.^[4]