New York state has plan to rescue nuclear power

• 7 years ago (2016-08-04)
• David Flin

Nuclear 640 Renewables 752

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New York’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has enacted a landmark Clean Energy Standard that calls for supporting the state’s ageing nuclear power plants with a subsidy, to protect nuclear power providers that have struggled to compete with cheap electricity from natural gas plants. Under the plan, three of the state’s four nuclear plants will receive funding until 2029. The plan also stated the intention to provide 50 per cent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources, and cut CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.

Exelon, owner of the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plant, has said it planned to close the plant by early 2017, and Exelon, owner of the R.E. Ginna and Nine Mile Point plants said it would close these two plants in the next few years without state support.

Audrey Zibelman, Chair of the New York PSC, said that the Clean Energy Standard offers “a bridge to pay the nuclear units for their zero carbon production so that we can secure our renewable mandate and carbon reduction goals in a cost-effective and realistic manner.” The plan offers credits to producers of zero-carbon power, whether they run nuclear plants, wind farms, or solar arrays. This programme is intended to ensure that “premature retirements of existing nuclear plants do not erode some or all the carbon and clean energy benefits of continuing deployment of wind and solar power in the short-term, while significantly raising the …. Deployment of low-carbon electricity generation over the long-term.”