For how long would it need to be mothballed before you’d be comfortable demolishing it? Important to be conservative wrt grid stability, but at some point, burn the ships so there is no going back.
Mothballed plants don’t really contribute to grid stability. They need to be kept in a pretty active state, ready to spin up at a moments notice in order to be any use.
The fuel (coal) left onsite is also an environmental liability and really needs to be gotten rid of by burning it, necessitating a carefully planned shutdown schedule.
Realistically, there is no going back: once the last coal-fired plant is closed (in September 2024), it will be gone for good.
