The Brandon Shores coal plant is set to shut down, but the grid isn’t ready to absorb it’s loss. What will happen to those who rely on this power plant to keep the lights on?
From Fox Business. A power grid operator that serves millions of Americans across the mid-Atlantic is warning that a planned coal-fired power plant shutdown will severely threaten electricity supplies and occur before new power sources come online.
Pray for your fellow intercessor.
PJM Interconnection — which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, serving 65 million consumers — said the forthcoming shutdown of Brandon Shores coal power plant located outside of Baltimore will disrupt the reliability of the region’s grid. The plant’s operator, Texas-based Talen Energy, intends to deactivate the plant in June 2025 as part of a settlement with the left-wing eco group Sierra Club.
“There has been a strong push for quite some time to get coal power out of Maryland,” Christopher Summers, the founder and president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “In this accelerated timeline of exiting from coal-fired power plants in the coming 12 to 24 months, I think it’s going to create a major reliability concern for the state.” …
In 2020, Talen Energy announced it had reached an agreement with Sierra Club to shutter Brandon Shores and two other major coal power plants in the region. The decision was made in exchange for an agreement from the Sierra Club which aims to avoid future litigation or permit disputes related to coal at Talen Energy’s “transitioning sites.”
Ralph Alexander, the then-CEO of Talen Energy, said at the time that his company’s move was part of its transition to green energy and its broader environmental, social and governance (ESG)-focused future. According to the company’s current ESG commitments, it plans to entirely eliminate the use of coal in its wholly-owned generation facilities like Brandon Shores, which generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power nationwide.
However, according to PJM Interconnection, prematurely shutting down Brandon Shores — which has a capacity of 1,295 megawatts, enough to power more than a million homes — would spark an imbalance in the grid. Shuttering such a vital power source requires the regional grid operator to divert electricity generated elsewhere, but transmission upgrades in Maryland aren’t expected to be finished until 2028, three years after the planned Brandon Shores closure. …
Because of the tight timeframe, PJM has requested that Brandon Shores remains in operation through 2028 under a so-called Reliability Must-Run Agreement until transmission upgrades are completed. However, Shields noted Talen Energy’s agreement with Sierra Club prevents such an agreement from moving forward. …
Both PJM and Talen Energy confirmed they are currently engaged in negotiations with the Sierra Club and Maryland state officials to find a solution. …
Earlier this month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) intervened and greenlighted PJM’s nearly $800 million emergency plan for transmission upgrades to blunt the Brandon Shores closure.
FERC Commissioner Mark Christie said on Nov. 8 that, without proper upgrades, the shutdown could cause “severe voltage collapse in Baltimore and the surrounding zones, including Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, Delaware and southeastern Pennsylvania,” adding such a scenario would be “potentially catastrophic.” …
Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, who entered office in January, has called for the state’s power grid to be entirely powered by green energy by 2035 through reducing energy consumption and “supercharging investments” in wind and solar developments. …
Share your prayers for our energy grid below.
(Excerpt from Fox Business. Photo Credit: Backyard Productions/Canva Pro)