Consumer advocates in the USA are challenging a federally mandated rate hike put in place to keep a ‘zombie’ power plant open. The target concerns a US Department of Energy move to keep Pennsylvania’s Eddystone oil and gas plant open beyond its close date, which according to the initial estimate will cost customers $5.1 million.
The following is a statement by Clara Summers, manager of Illinois’ Citizens Utility Board’s (CUB) ‘Consumers for a Better Grid’ campaign, on the federal order. The move, she says, could needlessly cost customers across the country, including Commonwealth Edison customers in Illinois, millions of dollars in higher electricity bills.
“In a summer when Illinois electricity customers are already paying higher power bills, a new Department of Energy order will unnecessarily add to our pain, and that’s why we are challenging it. The DOE’s manoeuvre is not about reliability – this is a hand-out to the fossil fuel industry, paid for by consumers across the region, including Illinois. PJM [the regional transmission organisation] has already concluded that there are adequate resources for this summer, but the DOE has manufactured an emergency to prop up an outdated power plant that should already be shuttered. The DOE just made a bad situation even worse, and Illinois consumers will pay the price. In challenging the DOE order, CUB and other consumer advocates argue that keeping this ‘zombie power plant’ open is not only costly for consumers, but it’s also illegal, a violation of the Federal Power Act.”
The operating units at Eddystone are fuelled by oil or gas and were built between 1974 and 1976. They were slated to be closed on 31 May, before the DoE issued its order mandating PJM Interconnection, the power grid operator, and Constellation, the owner of the plant, to keep them open for another 90 days.
