Reliability, transmission factors in role of hydro power
The planned closure of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth represents "a big step back" in meeting the state's emissions reduction and clean energy goals, and makes it "all the more important" that the Baker administration's hydroelectric and solar proposals move forward, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton said Thursday.
In looking for ways to fill the 680-megawatt void the plant's closure will leave, Beaton said the state must find energy sources that are cost effective, reliable and clean.
"Pilgrim really helped us with all three of those, so finding the specific resources that can help us to transition away from that nuclear power and provide another source that hits all three of those for us is a bit of a challenge," Beaton said on Boston Herald Radio. "So it's a big step back in meeting our Global Warming Solutions (Act) target ... because it was over 80 percent of the amount of clean energy that we had to help us toward our clean energy goals."
Passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008, the Global Warming Solutions Act set economy-wide goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 statewide levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The plant's closure makes "it all the more important for some of the other policy decisions that we're pursuing, to see them actually happen."
Gov. Charlie Baker's administration has filed separate bills to authorize long-term contracts for hydroelectric power from Quebec and to increase the net metering cap for solar generators in an effort to more quickly meet the 2020 goal of 1,600 megawatts of solar generation.
Baker said Thursday that hydro power would help the state compensate for the loss in baseload capacity -- the minimum amount of electricity required at a steady rate -- expected when Pilgrim shuts down.
"The thing that makes Pilgrim so important to the region, which is different than solar and wind for example, is it's always on 24/7/365. It never shuts off," he said during his monthly "Ask the Governor" segment on WGBH. "Part of what makes the hydro piece so appealing to me is that is baseload capacity. It would be the kind of capacity that would be there 24/7/365, every day when you turn on the lights or use electricity in any way."
Baker said he hopes the ability of hydro power to fill that baseload void "will make the opportunity to test the waters on hydro a little more attractive to people."
While calling Pilgrim's closure "something that has to be taken into serious consideration sooner rather than later," Rep. Thomas Golden (D-Lowell) said this week he favors continuing a "very slow approach" on energy policy.
"I don't think it's something we can rush," the House chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy told the News Service. "We still have committee hearings going on. The members of the House are weighing in very, very heavily. This is something we need to get right. I really believe it is the issue of the decade-plus."
Beaton said Thursday he expects the nuclear power plant to close in either May 2017 or May 2019, depending on whether the plant needs to begin a new two-year fueling cycle to meets its current obligations in the capacity market.
The state must still figure out how it will get the power generated in Quebec to Massachusetts and just how much it will cost ratepayers, though he said the governor's legislation is intended to answer both questions, Beaton said.
"The biggest uncertainty in all of that right now is we don't know how it's getting here yet," he said. "We know what we can get the commodity for, generally speaking. But when you look at the delivered cost of that with the transmission factored in ... we can't say for certain what that is today."
Beaton said it is imperative for the governor's hydroelectric legislation to pass so the state can begin the process of assessing the feasibility of adding necessary additional transmission capacity.
"We need to pursue, through our hydro legislation and the authority that it would grant for the process to basically start, for us to start pursuing those transmission projects," Beaton said.
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