The Biden-Harris administration says its tough power plant rules won't harm long-term power reliability, but four grid operators expressed the exact opposite view in a legal brief filed Friday. [emphasis, links added]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized tough emissions rules for U.S. power plants in April, saying at the time that they would “improve public health without affecting reliable electricity delivery.”
However, four major regional grid operators made the exact opposite argument in an amicus brief supporting red states’ legal challenge to the rule, stating clearly: If implemented as is, these rules will jeopardize Americans' ability to reliably gain adequate power.
“The brief overview they provided indicates that the rule's compliance timeline and related provisions are not feasible without additional modifications, and It is destined to accelerate the pace of early retirement of generating units. Has key reliability attributes Just when such generation is needed to support growing electricity demand Due to the growth of the digital economy and the need to ensure sufficient backup generation to support the increasing amount of intermittent renewable energy generation,” the grid operator wrote in an amicus brief.
“This inevitable and foreseeable early retirement decision due to the rule's timeline will place significant stress on each joint agency. [independent system operators’] / [regional transmission organizations’] The ability to maintain grid reliability to meet the needs of citizens and the nation's economy.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), PJM, Southwest Power Pool (SPP) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) teamed up to submit the brief. According to the briefing, the four players collectively serve 156 million customers.
Specifically, EPA rule would require existing coal plants to control 90% of their emissions by 2032 If they want to stay in business after 2039, they will too New natural gas power plants will be required to take the same measures to remain operational after 2039According to the agency.
The EPA essentially requires power plants to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to meet these emission reduction requirements, Four grid operators argued the plan was too costly and unproven to be enforced in such a tight time frame.
The EPA's conclusion that CCS is the “optimal emissions reduction system” is also questionable, and the compliance deadlines imposed by the decision are “based on overly ambitious and insufficiently supported assumptions about CCS commercialization target dates,” grid operators said in their argued in the briefing.
“Those ones [best system of emissions reduction] Decisions then drive the speed and timing of compliance, which in turn drives Premature retirement of power generation sources threatens grid reliability Even before the rule’s compliance date.
The claims made by the grid operator in the briefing are completely inconsistent with what the EPA says about its rules. …shear…
Grid experts similarly warned that the EPA's rules would also harm power reliability Electricity demand is expected to increase significantly due to de facto electric vehicle (EV) mandates and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Commissioner Mark Christie also warned that the U.S. could face a severe power outage once demand increases and reliable supply ceases without sufficient, reliable generation capacity to offset those reductions. crisis.
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