PJM Announces Transmission Upgrades Needed to Maintain Grid Reliability

Philadelphia, P.A. — PJM Interconnection, the regional electric grid operator for 13 states including Pennsylvania, announced its grid reliability analysis for the FirstEnergy Solutions’ Beaver County Nuclear Power Plant today. The report states that transmission upgrades will be necessary to maintain grid reliability should the nuclear plant retire. Most of those upgrades are already planned and the plant should be able to retire as scheduled.

In response, Thomas Schuster, Pennsylvania Senior Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club, issued the following statement:

“PJM is here to secure grid reliability and make sure everyone in the region has the energy they need. This analysis underscores that the Department of Energy should not intervene to keep retiring nuclear plants online because there is no emergency. In fact, we have more generation than we need, and issues of reliability and resilience have a lot more to do with our transmission system than our generating plants. After these upgrades to our electricity grid are implemented we no longer need to rely on the uneconomic and risky Beaver Valley Nuclear Plant. Additionally, the potential for this nuclear plant’s retirement highlights the need for a fair economic transition plan for communities hosting these older and now obsolete power plants and is a reminder that we must be proactive to make sure everyone can benefit as the region transitions to a cleaner, more efficient energy economy.”