Coal plant in downtown Colorado Springs to close in 2023

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Martin Drake power plant's days are numbered in downtown Colorado Springs; the board voted Friday in favor of shuttering the city's coal plant by 2023.

Officials have wanted to decommission the Drake power plant, one of only a few urban coal plants left in the country, for years; but a final timeline has also taken years of planning.

Friday, the CSU board voted 7-2 to close the Drake by 2023 and the Ray Nixon Plant, south of Colorado Springs, by 2030. CSU says it gets 416 megawatts of coal-fired power.

Instead, CSU will be relying on 500 megawatts of new wind energy, 150 megawatts of solar power, and more than 400 megawatts of battery storage.

According to an analysis by Strategen provided to CSU, decommissioning both of the plants and replacing them with wind energy could save customers more than $150 million.

Watch KRDO NewsChannel 13 tonight for more information and what the closures will mean for the city.