The Ohio-based First Energy announced a string of coal power plant closures on Wednesday night, but said it could reverse its decision if the Trump administration takes action.
The utility had been lobbying the Trump administration over the last several months to implement a plan to save the plants. Trump had ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to develop a plan to save both coal and nuclear plants on June 1.
Critics have called the Trump plan a “bailout” for uneconomic power plants that cannot compete in a changing energy market dominated by low-cost natural gas.
The utility said it “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,” according to a company statement.
The president said earlier this month that he was preparing to release what he called a “military plan” to help coal plants. The plan is expected to subsidize the ailing coal units based on a national security argument the White House is developing.
“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,” said Don Moul, First Energy’s president of its generation companies and its chief nuclear officer. “The market fails to recognize, for example, the on-site fuel storage capability of coal, which increases the resilience of the grid.”
The company said that based on the timing of any federal policy action, these decisions could be “reversed or postponed.”
On Wednesday, First Energy notified the grid operator PJM Interconnection of its intent to close two coal plants in Ohio, one in Pennsylvania, and a diesel oil-fired plant it owns in Ohio. PJM operates the federally-overseen wholesale electric grid that comprises 13 states and represents the largest energy market in the country.
First Energy informed PJM that it plans to deactivate the four fossil-fuel generating plants in 2021 and 2022.
The plants total 4,017 megawatts of electric power, which is enough to power millions of homes. The closures will begin on June 1, 2021, with the Eastlake 6 plant in Eastlake, Ohio, the Bruce Mansfield Units 1-3 in Shippingport, Pa., and the W.H. Sammis Diesel oil plant in Stratton, Ohio.
On June 1 of the following year, it will close the W.H. Sammis coal plant in Stratton, Ohio, which sits on the Ohio River.
