Coal has historically been cheap, however, it gets more expensive every day relative to other sources.
As you can see from the graphic, the cost to run a coal plant in the US is about $0.033/kWh, which is wickedly cheap for a source that's typically used for baseload. A CCGT is cheaper to build and operate in that environment however, but that's not the case globally.
Additionally, keep in mind that the authors completed their analysis with the assumption that coal was used to meet marginal load demand, i.e., peak demand where extra generating capacity is required.
I'm not arguing as to the merit or lack thereof of the points made in the article, I'm just pointing out that one needs to be careful using the figures from Lazard, based on the explanation I provided above. Claiming coal is expensive isn't accurate, which is, when you dig into it, even supported by the Lazard figures, in the US, what is even cheaper is natural gas however. In places like China and the 3rd world where LNG infrastructure isn't as extensive or may not exist at all, coal is still the low cost baseload generator of choice unfortunately.
This is rarely done with coal because it requires the starting and stopping of the boilers as demand changes over time. And it is expensive.
Yes, peaking is typically handled by gas plants of the single cycle nature where available. Recall, I've written several threads on power generation here, this isn't a foreign subject to me.
However, that said, prior to the fracked gas boom, coal was often used for load following where required. Many parts of Australia still do this, with coal being the dominant source of energy that must be ramped up and down with demand shifts.
In more recent years coal plants in these locations have had to deal with not only the traditional ramp cycles but new ones that demand greater flexibility as wind and solar capacity have been introduced. This is much harder on the plants and has caused failures. We are seeing this with gas plants as well, having to chase the output profiles of intermittent sources has impacted the lifespan of components and reliability, this is one of the reasons Texas had so much gas capacity offline for maintenance recently (far more than was planned) because wear and tear has outpaced the projections/expectations.
Also, high demand rarely comes into the picture in cold weather, rather, it usually occurs during hot weather when everybody runs a/c.
That varies wildly by region and, if applied to many parts of Canada, would be wholly incorrect. Ontario has two peak seasons: Summer and Winter with pronounced lulls in the spring and fall. Quebec is similar, but their winter peak is actually higher than their summer peak because most people in the province heat with electricity.
Winter electricity demand will, not surprisingly, follow the use of electricity for heating.
So again, the assumptions and analysis were cherry picked. Then broad market conclusions were drawn based on the cherry picked information.
Again, I'm not opposed to the criticism of the article, but we need to be consistent and ensure the integrity of those criticisms. If you'd like to discuss more of the nuance in relation to the points I've made I'd be glad to.
