On May 21, Burlington Northern Santa Fe announced that Georgia Power Co. recently awarded the railroad a long-term contract to deliver Powder River Basin (PRB) coal to the utility's Robert W. Scherer plant near Juliette, Ga.
The contract, effective Jan. 1, 2004, calls for BNSF to deliver low-sulphur PRB coal from Wyoming and Montana to Memphis, where Norfolk Southern Railway — under a separate Georgia Power contract — would move shipments to the Scherer plant.
Georgia Power, a division of Southern Co., plans in 2004 to use PRB coal in all four of the plant's generating units, annually burning between 12 million and 14 million tons.
BNSF, which annually moves about 12 million tons of PRB coal under a long-term contract with Southern Co. subsidiary Alabama Power Co., currently moves coal to Georgia Power's Scherer plant on a limited basis.
Source: Progressive Railroading Daily News