New York Commission Approves Transfer of Entergy’s Nuclear Plants

The New York State Public Service Commission has approved an agreement allowing the corporate transfer of four upstate nuclear power plants from their parent company Exelon Corporation, to a newly formed, independent parent entity. The deal provides $331 million in financial support for the state’s nuclear facilities and includes protections regarding decommissioning and enhanced state oversight. The independent entity owns merchant generation and serves customers in competitive electricity and gas markets.

The agreement protects thousands of jobs and helps keep nuclear plants on financial footing. The four plants are the two-unit 1.9 gigawatt Nine Mile Point nuclear facility, 579-megawatt R.E. Ginna, and 842-megawatt James A. FitzPatrick.

New York created a zero-emission credit program as part of its Clean Energy Standard in August 2016 to prevent the premature retirement of three nuclear power plants — Exelon Corp.’s FitzPatrick, Ginna, and Nine Mile Point. Indian Point Energy Center was excluded from the nuclear subsidy program in light of the potential danger to the New York metropolitan area. In 2017, Entergy and the state of New York entered into an agreement to close the Indian Point Unit 2 in April 2020 and Unit 3 in April 2021, 14 years earlier than anticipated under federal re-licensing terms. The agreement was based on environmental protection aspects and reduction of risk of nuclear accident, mainly due to the proximity of the facility to New York City.

Indian Point shut down its last nuclear reactor, Unit 3, on April 30, marking the end of 59 years of continuous power generation. With a capacity of 1,040 megawatts, Indian Point together with the FitzPark, Ginna, and Nine Mile Point represented about 24.5 percent of all nuclear energy generated in the area.

Initially, the Indian Point facility operated with three pressurized water reactors (Units 1,2 and 3). Unit 1 was installed in 1962 and closed in 1974. Unit 2 began operating in 1974 and Unit 3 in 1976.

The total shutdown of Unit 3 at Indian Point has prompted the operation of three natural gas plants to meet the electricity supply required by the City of New York. The power generation plants are: Bayonne Energy Center II (120 megawatts), CPV Valley Energy Center (678 megawatts), and Cricket Valley Energy Center (1,020 megawatts).

New York enacted legislation in July 2019, which requires a carbon-neutral power system by 2040, including targets of 6 gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025, and 3 gigawatts of energy storage by 2030.