FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) is planning to close oil- and coal-fired power plants, with combined generation capacity of 4,017MW, located in Ohio and Pennsylvania, US.
Image: The Bruce Mansfield Power Plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, US. Photo: courtesy of Nyttend/Wikipedia.
As part of this plan, FirstEnergy has field deactivation notice to the PJM Interconnection (PJM), the regional transmission organization, for the four fossil-fuel generating plants in 2021 and 2022.
The company said in a statement: “FES is closing the plants due to a market environment that fails to adequately compensate generators 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.
Subject to review by PJM, FirstEnergy plans to close the Eastlake 6, Bruce Mansfield Units 1-3 and W.H. Sammis Diesel facilities on 01 June 2021 followed by the W.H. Sammis Units 5-7 on 01 June 2022.
The firm noted: “If PJM determines that one or more of these units may be needed for grid reliability purposes, FES will provide information and estimates of the costs and timing to keep some or all of the units open.”
Additionally, FES is seeking exemption from PJM’s “must-offer” rules both for the four fossil-fired plants as well as three nuclear generating plants, which are due to be decommissioned in 2020 and 2021.
As per the must-offer rules, generating companies within the PJM region must make capacity of their plants available to the grid in regular capacity auctions.
However, the firm is seeking exemption for the fossil and nuclear plants from PJM grid “must-offer” rules for 2022-23 delivery year.
The nuclear plants considered for the exemption include the 908MW Davis-Besse facility in Ohio; 939MW unit1 and 933MW unit 2 of Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Pennsylvania; and 1,281MW Perry nuclear plant in Ohio.
FES Generation Companies president and chief nuclear officer Don Moul said: “Our decision to retire the fossil-fueled plants was every bit as difficult as the one we made five months ago to deactivate our nuclear assets.
“As with nuclear, our fossil-fueled plants face the insurmountable challenge of a market that does not sufficiently value their contribution to the security and flexibility of our power system.
“The market fails to recognize, for example, the on-site fuel storage capability of coal, which increases the resilience of the grid.”