State Sen. Gene Yaw’s recent commentary claiming the retirement of Homer City’s coal-fired power plant will be a “crippling blow” to the regional energy grid is misleading at best (“In Homer City, another step in killing the grid,” June 14, TribLIVE).
PJM Interconnection — our grid operator — found no reliability issues associated with the deactivation of the 54-year-old plant. That’s no surprise since expensive coal-fired plants aren’t running as often as they used to, and cheaper natural gas plants and clean, renewable generation are increasingly pricing coal out.
Yaw also claims that renewables, like solar and wind power, aren’t reliable, but during last holiday season’s cold snap, coal and gas plants proved to have the most reliability problems. Despite taking billions of our money in grid capacity payments, gas plants failed 37% of the time we called on them to turn on — often with little or no notice. Likewise, coal plants like Homer City failed 16% of the time. It was clean energy that kept the lights on.
If Yaw is serious about reliability, he should join Gov. Josh Shapiro in urging PJM to clear the backlog of mostly renewable projects waiting for approval across the region. That will mean greater reliability, new jobs, cleaner air and cheaper energy for all Pennsylvanians.
Rob Altenburg
Harrisburg