The New York Public Services Commission voted unanimously late last week to give the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant near Rochester a reprieve.
The vote on Thursday will allow Ginna owner Constellation Nuclear Energy Group, an Exelon subsidiary, to enter a Reliability Support Services Agreement, which would require Rochester Gas and Electric to purchase electricity from the 44-year-old single-reactor power plant. Lack of an agreement threatened the future of the plant. The previous purchase agreement with the 577-megawatt plant expired June 30 of this year.
A new agreement would allow Ginna, one of the oldest NPPs in the country, to stay operational until 2018.
In an era of subsidiaries for wind and solar power production and historically low gas prices, Ginna is looking for recognition as a zero-carbon source of electricity, which should increase its desirability, if not the price of its electricity.
“Ideally, we'd like a market-based solution that puts us on a level playing field with the other energy producers,” WHAM-TV, an ABC affiliate, quoted plant spokeswoman Maria Hudson as saying.
“We're just looking to be more competitive with other greenhouse gas friendly producers,” she said.
The plant, Hudson noted, has purchased new, portable "flex equipment" so that workers can react quickly to an emergency. In addition, repairs were made after an inspection this year revealed the vulnerability of backup power systems to flooding — specifically a backup battery room.
It would have required 27-inches of rain in a 24-hour deluge to have flooded the room, but that problem has been resolved, Hudson said. "The process worked through. We identified the issue, promptly fixed it, and it never had an impact on plant safety," she said.