WASHINGTON, D.C.—In comments submitted today to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking initiated by Department of Energy, the Nuclear Energy Institute explained how the premature retirement of nuclear plants across the country poses a risk to long-term reliability and resiliency of America’s electricity grid. NEI supports DOE’s goal of ensuring that resource diversity and resiliency are appropriately valued, and urges FERC to encourage the necessary market reforms.
"The current failure to value important attributes of nuclear generation, including those that significantly contribute to grid resiliency, has prompted retirements of well-functioning, highly-efficient, and environmentally-valuable nuclear plants, said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick.
“While we may not see the impact of a less resilient grid until another emergency challenges the delivery of electricity to this nation’s citizens, neglecting to address this problem today could lay the groundwork for serious breakdowns in electricity service tomorrow,” said Korsnick.
Late last month Energy Secretary Rick Perry directed FERC to issue a rule requiring electricity markets to develop and implement reforms that would fully compensate generation resources necessary to maintain the grid’s reliability and resiliency. In today’s comments to FERC, NEI stressed that market reforms instituted in response to Secretary Perry’s directive must include the following:
- respect for current and future state policies
- continued reform of price rules
- a cost-of-service option at least until other market structures are implemented
- development of market structures to value resilience and diversity.
“Short-term prices should not dictate significant changes in our generation fleet, reducing the nation’s resource diversity and grid resiliency. Such changes would run counter to the federal government’s efforts to make resiliency a key component of its national security strategy for more than twenty years,” said Korsnick.