BUCHANAN – Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council claim a new study it commissioned puts to rest any lingering doubts over replacement power and shows that the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant can be done clean and green, without big increases in electric bills.
Entergy announced earlier this year that they would begin shutting down the reactors in 2020. Both will be offline by 2021.
Effectively replacing the relatively low cost power coming from Indian Point will depend on
New York State improving its energy efficiency policies
Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay said the study confirms what they already knew.
“We are already on our way to closing Indian Point, without reliability issues, without price spikes, and with virtually all of the replacement power needed coming from renewable sources or efficiency,” Gallay said.
The report, by Synapse Energy Economics, shows that electricity from Indian Point can be replaced largely with increased energy savings and renewable energy sources coupled with transmission and other replacement projects already well underway.
Bob Fagan, of Synapse Energy, the lead report author, said they worked with four scenarios that factor in New York State’s move to clean and renewable energy standards.
“We looked at the overall pattern of costs from 2016 out to 2030 and we compared the scenario with Indian Point in service to the scenario to Indian Point not in service, and, essentially you have other resources along with the effect of energy efficiency combined, turn into a total wholesale costs that are just under one percent more in the scenario with Indian Point retired compared to the scenario with Indian Point in service,” Fagan said.
The report also finds New York State carbon emissions can continue on their downward trajectory without Indian Point.
“The most cost‐effective replacement resource scenario is an increase in the level of energy efficiency procurement in New York State,” says the Synapse report.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the pro-nuclear power group New York AREA, Jerry Kremer, said for over 40 years, Indian Point “has been the backbone of New York’s electric grid, safely providing 25percent of the power used in the New York City region and surrounding area – with zero carbon emissions.”
He said Indian Point opponents have, for years, “minimized the cost and environmental disruptions that will occur if the plant closes. Yet, in places where nuclear plants have closed carbon emissions have skyrocketed and numerous economic disruptions occurred.”
