Dive Brief:
- Entergy has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to clarify some dates related to the shutdown review process for its Indian Point nuclear plant, which will take more than 2,000 MW of non-emitting power off New York's grid.
- The utility also asked FERC to clarify that the deadline for the ISO to complete its final market power review of the Indian Point deactivation notice is no later than March 13, 2018.
- The request follows a recent report from the New York ISO that concluded closing the plant would not threaten grid reliability. Entergy announced in January that it would close the plant's two units in 2020 and 2021
Dive Insight:
The grid operator has determined the shutdown of Indian Point will not harm the state's electric reliability, but the process ahead remains complicated. Entergy is clarifying that a final market power review of the Indian Point deactivation notice — if such a review is found to be necessary —will be completed no later than March 13, 2018.
Entergy points out that in the second compliance order, the proposed interim process included deadlines of 90 days for the ISO to perform reliability assessments and 120 days for the ISO to review market power concerns following the ISO determination that a generator deactivation notice was complete.
"These are the same deadlines that the NY ISO included in its Initial Compliance Filing, which were accepted in the Initial Compliance Order and not altered by the Second Compliance Order," Entergy said in its filing.
Closure of the plants two units, in 2020 and 2021, is not expected to impact reliability. The ISO's report concluded that three new gas plants expected to come online soon, totaling 1,800 MW of new generation, as the reason Entergy can safely close the plant.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a longtime critic of the plant and for years has called for Entergy to shut down the plant, which is located just 25 miles from New York City. Both sides finally came to a deal earlier this year to shut down the plant.
