Energy Utilities Share Grid Reliability Concerns Over EPA Rule

Electric utilities told US energy regulators that a stringent Environmental Protection Agency rule on fossil fuel power plants would risk grid reliability shortfalls if plants were required to shut down too early.

The EPA must create a “mechanism that can be responsive to reliability considerations while providing a clear path for unit compliance,” the Edison Electric Institute, a trade association representing investor-owned utilities, wrote to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The group laid out a litany of reasons a fossil fuel plant may postpone closure or reliability issues could arise: delays in connecting replacement generation and building new transmission lines, ...