FES has notified Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Interconnection, a regional transmission organization (RTO), about the deactivation of Bruce Mansfield unit 3
Image: Deactivation activities are expected to be completed by May 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Benita Welter from Pixabay.
FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) has announced its plans to accelerate the deactivation of remaining coal-powered Bruce Mansfield unit 3 in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, US.
FES said that it has notified Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Interconnection, a regional transmission organization (RTO), about the deactivation of Bruce Mansfield Unit 3 on 7 November 2019, which was previously communicated as 1 June 2021.
In addition, it has previously deactivated Mansfield’s units 1 and 2, located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania on 5 February 2019.
The deactivation is planned to be carried out safely and responsibly in accordance with relevant regulations and guidelines, and the workforce is expected to be reduced by November, to a level required to complete deactivation activities.
FES stated: “In all cases, the Company will comply with its collective bargaining agreement, including severance as applicable, and have already initiated discussions with Union leadership.”
Bruce Mansfield unit 3 deactivation activities to be completed by May 2020
FES has cited the lack of economic viability in current market conditions as the reason behind the early deactivation of the unit. The deactivation activities of the Bruce Mansfield unit 3 are expected to be completed by May 2020.
In August 2018, the company announced the filing of deactivation notice for four fossil-fuel generating plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The plants represented a total of 4GW of generating capacity,
According to FES, closing of the plants is due to a market environment that couldn’t compensate for the resiliency and fuel-security attributes that the plants provide.
The power plants considered for deactivation include the 24MW Eastlake 6 coal-fired power plant in Eastlake, Ohio; the units 1-3 of Bruce Mansfield coal plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania with combined generation capacity of 2,490MW; the 13MW W.H. Sammis Diesel power station in Ohio; and W.H. Sammis Units 5-7 in Ohio with combined capacity of 1,490MW.
The firm had also sough exemption for the fossil and nuclear plants from PJM grid “must-offer” rules for 2022-23 delivery year.