Exelon said this week that it was encouraged by early responses from ISO New England regarding their filing two weeks ago to close the Mystic Generating Station in Everett by 2022 if regulatory changes weren’t made.
Following the blockbuster announcement, ISO New England released a memo discussion the need to implement long-discussed changes, and deemed the Everett station critical.
That memo was good news for Exelon at the moment, said a spokesman.
“We are glad to see that ISO-NE continues to recognize the importance of Mystic Generating Station for New England,” said Stephanie Jacobson of Exelon. “However, as the ISO acknowledges and our retirement announcement indicates, the ISO-NE tariff does not adequately compensate resources like Mystic for their contributions to fuel security and reliability. We will work with ISO and stakeholders in response to the ISO’s most recent announcement.”
ISO New England issued a memo detailing some initial analysis they did regarding the potential closure of the Mystic Station power plant, owned by Exelon, late on Tuesday, April 3. The body was expected to have a meeting on the matter on April 10.
Vamsi Chadalavada, chief operating officer for ISO New England, said changes to tariffs via waivers will be requested from the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC).
“These retirements pose an unacceptable fuel security risk to the region during the winter months,” read the memo. “Our recent operational experiences during the cold spell, the projected state of the power system in 2022 through 2024, and the future trends identified in our Operational Fuel Security Analysis, highlight the critical importance of this facility to the region’s fuel security.”
The memo made clear that the waivers currently aren’t available, but could be if approved by FERC.
“Since the ISO received Exelon’s retirement bids, it has been analyzing the potential impacts of losing the Mystic and Distrigas facilities from a fuel security perspective,” read the memo. “Given the reliability impacts identified in this analysis and the limited time to address this issue, the ISO will ask FERC to waive the requirements of the ISO’s Tariff to allow the ISO to retain Mystic 8 and 9 to maintain fuel security on the system – an option not currently contained in the ISO Tariff.”
The memo indicated that it would start discussing long-term solutions at this week’s meeting, and later this month as well.
- CORRECTION
The article, ‘Exelon Shocker’ that appeared in the April 4th edition of the Everett Independent, inferred that Exelon Generation stated that a property tax dispute with the City was one of the reasons the company filed to retire the Mystic Generating Station in 2022 with ISO New England. Exelon does not agree with that and disputed that their reference to property value uncertainty had nothing to do with the dispute. Exelon Generation’s announcement made no reference to the tax dispute issue. In addition, the article stated another contributing reason Exelon Generation made its filing was due to its concerns about securing fuel for its facility, this is also incorrect. Exelon Generation’s references to securing fuel for its units # 8 and 9 was a reason provided for why the company is purchasing the LNG terminal, to help ensure a continued reliable supply of fuel to the Mystic facility.