US DOE plan to keep uneconomic coal and nuclear plants running could cost $34 billion

• 5 years ago (2018-07-20)
• David Flin

Coal 273 North America 996 Nuclear 639

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The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) proposal to save coal and nuclear plants from retirement could cost $34 billion over a two-year period, according to an analysis conducted by Advanced Energy Economy (AEE). According to the analysis, direct costs to keep the plants running would be around $17 billion annually, depending on how the plan is implemented and which coal and nuclear plants qualify.

Todd Snitchler of the American Petroleum Institute, said that the DOE plan: “Could raise costs on American consumers and fundamentally hurt the Administration’s goal of American energy dominance throughout the world.”

The analysis looks at multiple ways that the Administration might roll out the plan, and reaches three broad tranches of estimates.

If uniform payments were given to all coal and nuclear plants reflecting their average annual shortfall, the cost would be about $16.7 billion per year, or about $34 billion over the two-year programme. If payments were only given to plants facing financial shortfalls, the cost would be $9.7 billion to $17.2 billion annually, or $20-34 billion for the duration of the plan.

If power plant owners were also granted a return on their invested capital in addition to payments for operating shortfalls, the analysis suggests that the costs could be $20-35 billion annually.