PEAKER NEWS
Massachusetts’ clean peak incentive puts
battery storage project on track
Clean energy advocates hope a battery storage project under development at the former site of a fossil fuel power plant can be a model for phasing out fossil peaker plants.
by Sarah Shemkus, September 11, 2023
The plan for the West Springfield plant came about when longtime energy developer Chris Sherman, vice president of regulatory affairs at Cogentrix, wanted to take his work in a new direction. He has a background in clean energy — he was project development manager for the ill-fated Cape Wind offshore wind plan — and was interested in returning to this work.
His employer put him in touch with [No Fracked Gas in Mass Director, Rosemary] Wessel, who had reached out to the company about the future of the West Springfield Generating Station.
Sherman and Wessel met in June 2021, and it was quickly clear that their goals aligned. The two began working together to create plans for the site, which had not yet closed officially. Their collaboration, Sherman said, has made it easier to bridge the perceived gap between the logistical, technological, and financial aspects of his work, and the environmental and social concerns of community members.
“If I were to just call people and say ‘energy developer,’ they might not be willing to enter into an objective discussion,” Sherman said. Wessel “has done an incredible job at generating interest and then facilitating communication in the broader stakeholder community.”
» Read the full article
*Stay tuned for updates coming soon in the campaign for Pittsfield Generating
Also, see below a great article from Clean Energy Group’s Shelley Robbins about the EPA’s failure to recognize the impacts of peaker power plants, both positive and negative. No Fracked Gas in Mass and BEAT are happy to be teaming up with Clean Energy Group, Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Slingshot to take our peaker campaign statewide.
EPA’s proposed carbon rules omit both the peaker problem and the peaker solution
The EPA completely overlooked co-located battery storage as a “best system of emissions reduction” in its latest proposal to reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fueled power plants.
Sept. 12, 2023 By Shelley Robbins
Batteries can be added to a conventional power plant as a technology that supplies the grid first, using energy it has stored from the grid when overall demand is low and the grid is being powered by cleaner resources.
Adding battery storage to a peaker can significantly reduce both carbon emissions (the target of the rule) as well as localized pollution that has significant health and mortality impacts on the surrounding communities. A few characteristics of peaker plants that make them valuable to the grid is their ability to start and stop quickly and to operate at partial load. But these characteristics also make it nearly impossible to control localized nitrogen oxides emissions with current technology. For this reason, peakers are some of the dirtiest plants on the grid. Adding battery storage as a technology can slash these emissions while also complying with West Virginia v. EPA.
» Read the full article
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