Reps. Rodgers, Duncan seek answers from FERC on impact of plant retirements
U.S. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Jeff Duncan (R-SC) are seeking information from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on the increasing retirements of power plants across the country.
Rodgers, head of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Duncan, chair of the Grid Security Subcommittee, also want to know how these closures could affect electric grid reliability.
“Regulatory, policy, and environmental pressures on fossil-based generation resources that provide 60 percent of the nation’s electricity further threaten the reliability and flexibility of the grid. Because of these pressures, coupled with projections of electric demand growth, we are concerned about the reliability of the bulk-power system and the actions the Commission is taking or considering taking to ensure that it fulfills its mission to ‘[a]ssist consumers in obtaining reliable, safe, secure, and economically efficient energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts,’” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to FERC commissioners.
Rodgers and Duncan asked FERC Commissioners to respond to a series of questions by Jan. 16.
The legislators want to know if current retirement plant study processes properly consider energy adequacy, essential reliability services, and/or fuel security. They also asked FERC if new reliability standards or changes to existing reliability standards are needed to address retirements, retirement studies, and resources that replace retiring generators.
“Given the variability of new resources like wind and solar, current markets may be unable to meet the energy and flexibility needs of the system. Markets have failed to change to provide sufficient revenues for necessary – reliable – resources, and this concern is magnified by widespread projections of demand increases and generator retirements,” they added in the letter.
