Here is an interesting article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  FirstEnergy closed down a coal-fired power plant in 2013, and had no plans to re-open it.  In the last few months, however, they have changed their minds.  At least, they have changed their minds about looking at the possibility of re-opening it.

The article states that market conditions have changed.  The price of electricity hasn’t gone up much, but the price of oil and gas has gone way, way down.  Who wants to bet that that one factor alone has reduced costs?

One other interesting point that was made in the article is that building a brand new gas-fired plant would (just a couple years ago) have been cheaper than converting the coal-fired plant to gas.