The addition of new renewable energy supplies is not keeping up with the retirements of fossil fuel power generation plants. In Missouri, grid operators have resolved to keep the Rush Island coal-fired power plant operational, despite a previous plan to retire the plant. But the problem is creeping up all over America. The Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Blunt reports:
Grid operators across the U.S. are leaning more heavily on old coal- and gas-fired power plants as electricity demand threatens to exceed supply during periods of extreme heat and other severe weather, events exacerbated by climate change. In addition to MISO, grid operators in Texas and California have lately warned of the potential for rolling blackouts this summer, in part because traditional power plants are being retired more quickly than they can be replaced by renewable energy and battery storage.
Conventional power plants such as Rush Island can help fill supply gaps during periods when wind and solar farms, which are among the cheapest and cleanest sources of electricity, aren’t producing at full capacity as a result of the weather, or when other generators fail or go offline for maintenance. But the decision to keep the old plants operating creates other concerns because their emissions contribute to climate change and pose potential health risks for people who live nearby.
“It is sadly ironic that the grid operator says Ameren’s uncontrolled coal-burning power plant is needed for reliability because of possible capacity limitations due to extreme heat and drought caused by climate change,” said Jenn DeRose, a Beyond Coal Campaign representative for the Sierra Club, which intervened in the Rush Island case. “Climate change is caused in the first place by burning fossil fuels like coal.”
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