Harrisburg, Pa. – The United States Department of Energy has ordered another energy plant, this time an oil and gas plant in Pennsylvania, to keep its turbines running through the hottest summer months as caution against electricity deficits in the network of 13 states of the average Atlantic.
The order of the department for the network operator, PJM Interconnection, with respect to the Eddystone energy plant, south of Philadelphia, in the Delaware River, is the second use of the federal power department under President Donald Trump to demand that an energy plant continue to operate in the United States.
Constellation Energy had planned to close units 3 and 4 of Eddystone on Saturday, but Trump’s department ordered the company to continue operating the units until at least August 28. Units can produce 760 combined megawatts.
The department, in order, cited PJM’s growing concerns about the energy deficit amid the closure of aged energy plants and the increase in the demand for electricity.
Last year, PJM approved Constellation’s request to close the units, but welcomed the order of the department to keep them in operation, saying that it is a “prudent and limited step” that allows PJM, the department and constellation studying the need and long -term viability of the Eddystone units.
The department took a Similar step last weekOrdering consumers energy that maintains the JH Campbell coal plant open in Michigan beyond their retirement on Saturday.
The grid operator there, the operator of the independent system of the average content, said that the order was unnecessary, that there was no emergency of energy there and that there should be enough energy in the region during the summer.
An Environmental Defense Group, the Riverkeeper Delaware Network, criticized the movement to keep Eddystone operating as an “environmental injustice.” The closure of the units would reduce hazardous pollution and carbon emissions from decades and help the region comply with federal clean air standards for SMOG, he said.
