Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from PJM Interconnection LLC.
AKRON — For the first time, the operating end points for FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ottawa County; its Perry nuclear power plant east of Cleveland in Perry, Ohio, and its twin-reactor Beaver Valley nuclear power complex west of Pittsburgh in Shippingport, Pa., have been put in writing by a corporation subsidiary.
FirstEnergy Solutions, a subsidiary the corporation founded to manage anticipated bankruptcy filings for its economically failing nuclear and coal divisions, has confirmed in a news release distributed Wednesday that Davis-Besse will be shut down permanently in 2020 and that FirstEnergy’s other nuclear stations will be shut down permanently in 2021 if there are no buyers or remedies found by their respective dates.
The timetable for each permanent closure is determined by refueling schedules.
Commercial-scale nuclear reactors must be refueled every 18 months to two years, depending on the isotope of uranium in their fuel. Davis-Besse emerged this week from what a senior FirstEnergy executive previously described as its last refueling outage.
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Each facility employs hundreds of workers, many of them engineers and skilled tradesmen. In all, the premature closures will mean about 2,300 layoffs and 4,048 megawatts taken out of production from the region’s 13-state electric grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC of Audubon, Pa.
Every megawatt produces the electricity equivalent of roughly what’s needed to power 1,000 homes. That means, over the next three years, these FirstEnergy nuclear-plant closures will mean a loss of electricity roughly equivalent of what’s needed to power 4 million homes.
In addition to publishing anticipated closure timelines, FirstEnergy Solutions has made an appeal to the Trump Administration for a last-minute bailout.
In a 44-page request to U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the corporation’s subsidiary said PJM “has done little to prevent this emergency despite the numerous signs for many years that the emergency was coming.”
“PJM has demonstrated little urgency to remedy this problem anytime soon — so immediate action by the Secretary is needed to alleviate the present emergency,” the filing with Mr. Perry states.
PJM in a statement said the issue is one of reliability, not an immediate emergency.
“Diversity of the fuel supply is important, but the PJM system has adequate power supplies and healthy reserves in operation today, and resources are more diverse than they have ever,” the statement reads in part.
“Nothing we have seen to date indicates that an emergency would result from the generator retirements. The potential for the retirements has been discussed publicly for some time. In anticipation, PJM took a preliminary look at the effect of the retirements on the system. We found that the system would remain reliable. We have adequate amounts of generations available.”
The request from FirstEnergy Solutions triggered sharp reactions from not only a long list of environmental groups, anti-nuclear groups, and public interest groups opposed to bailouts, but also from the oil and gas industry.
A statement from the American Petroleum Institute accused FirstEnergy of “misleading the public on the future of its power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.”
“FirstEnergy’s latest attempt to spread a false narrative surrounding the reliability of the electric grid is nothing more than a ruse that will force Main Street consumers to pay higher prices,” Todd Snitchler, API market development group director, said.
The national Sierra Club said it is prepared to sue FirstEnergy and the Trump Administration if the latter “bows to FirstEnergy and moves forward with this bailout attempt” and “willfully ignores the reality of the marketplace, the health of our families, and the letter of the law,” Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign director, said.
Asim Z. Haque, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman, though, said FirstEnergy’s actions are consistent with a corporation that has hit a roadblock and made clear it is interested in selling off its economically unprofitable power plants.
“As the notice states that the plants will not be deactivated for a few years, it should reassure everyone that no major changes are imminent for either plant [Davis-Besse or Perry], and that the company’s goal of transferring the plants to another owner is still viable,” the PUCO chairman said.
Davis-Besse generates 908 megawatts of electricity. It is Ottawa County’s larger employer, an anchor for local school and tax bases, and is expected to close 17 years ahead of schedule. It is licensed to operate through April 22, 2037.
Perry generates 1,268 megawatts. It is expected to close five years ahead of schedule. It is licensed to operate through March 18, 2026
The two Beaver Valley reactors generate a combined 1,872 megawatts. Beaver Valley Unit 1 is expected to close 15 years ahead of schedule. It is licensed to operate through Jan. 29, 2036. Beaver Valley Unit 2 is expected to close 26 years ahead of schedule. It is licensed to operate through May 27, 2047.
Much of that loss is expected to be replaced by the nation’s growing investment in natural gas, which has hit rock-bottom prices because of a game-changing development in the oil and gas industry that has resulted in a worldwide fracking boom over the past decade. There also has been substantially more investment in wind power, solar power, and other types of renewable energy over those 10 years.
FirstEnergy Solutions has a Monday deadline looming for a $100 million debt-principal payment.
With combined debt estimated at $3.5 billion and losses mounting daily on the competitive side of its business because of the budget drains from its nuclear and coal-fired plants, the utility has turned to a combination of hedge funds managed by four high-powered private investor groups to help move it forward with a regulated growth strategy.
The groups — New York-based Elliott Management Corp., Dallas-based Bluescape Resources Co., Singapore-based GIC Private Limited (formerly the Government of Singapore Investment Corp.), and New York-based Zimmer Partners LP — have agreed to invest $2.5 billion in FirstEnergy to support growth in the company’s regulated utility businesses. FirstEnergy says the investment does not change its decision to cut ties with plants deemed noncompetitive.
Contact Tom Henry at thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published March 29, 2018, 11:58 p.m.
