US energy group Entergy has announced plans to shut down its 805 MW Palisades nuclear power plant permanently on 1 October 2018. The company has reached an agreement with Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest utility, an early termination of their power purchase agreement (PPA) for the plant, located in Covert Township (Michigan) in 2018, i.e. four years earlier than planned. The original agreement committed Consumers Energy to purchase nearly all of the power that Palisades generates through April 2022. Under the current plan, and assuming regulatory approval of the request to terminate the PPA in 2018, Palisades will be refuelled as scheduled in the spring of 2017 and operate through the end of the fuel cycle, then permanently shut down on 1 October 2018.
The pressurised water reactor (PWR) was commissioned in late 1971 and has generated more than 190 TWh since then. Degraded market conditions including the competition from gas-fired and renewable power generation have prompted Entergy to shut down the plant earlier than expected. The early termination payment to Entergy will help assure the plant’s transition from operations to decommissioning, maintaining the group's commitment to meet US Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements.
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