Baldwin Energy Complex
Baldwin Energy Complex is a conventional steam coal plant with two operating generating units totaling 1,259.6 MW of nameplate capacity in Randolph County, Illinois. The plant is owned by Vistra Corp and operated by its subsidiary Dynegy Midwest Generation Inc., the entity registered with EIA. A third unit at the site, Unit 3, was mothballed in 2016 after the plant failed to recover its basic operating costs in a MISO capacity auction, and it no longer operates. Vistra had planned to retire the remaining Baldwin units by 2025 as part of a broader phase-out of its Illinois coal fleet, but in December 2024 it extended operations to 2027, citing reliability concerns raised across the MISO market, while still meeting EPA-driven retirement and coal ash pond closure obligations. The company has since added a 68-MW solar array with battery storage at the site under Illinois' Coal-to-Solar and Energy Storage Initiative. Baldwin settles into the MISO market at its own local pricing nodes rather than any neighboring ISO footprint.