Generating loss resulting from the retirement of nuclear power plants will be offset this summer by “a return to more normal operations” at existing reactors, the Department of Energy’s energy statistics agency said in a new report Tuesday.
In their summer 2021 electricity industry outlook published Tuesday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast that generation from nuclear power would total 207 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a similar figure to the summer of 2020. Last year’s generation totals were hampered by “more unplanned outages than usual,” the agency said in the report.
Although two nuclear plants have closed in the last 12 months — Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa and Indian Point Energy Center in New York — the retired capacity will be nullified as other reactors return to normal operations, the report said.
However, Indian Point’s April 30 closure will affect regional electricity production, EIA said. Natural gas generation in New England will rise 8% this summer to fill in the capacity gap left by the plant’s closure, the agency forecast.
EIA has already reported on the effects of the four plant closures scheduled for this year on the country’s overall capacity loss. In a January report the agency said these closures will account for the biggest percentage of all generating losses in 2021.
Indian Point went dark in April and there are still three more plants slated to shut down this year — the Byron and Dresden Generating Stations in Illinois, and the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan.
