US-based FirstEnergy Solutions will shut down four coal-fired and oil-fuelled power plants in 2021 and 2022 due to an increasingly difficult market environment. A deactivation notice has been sent to the regional power transmission organization PJM Interconnection (PJM) and the power plants which are considered for decommissioning are namely:
- the 24 MW Eastlake-6 oil-fired unit in Eastlake (Ohio, United States), to be deactivated in June 2021
- the first three units of the Bruce Mansfield coal-fired plant in Shippingport (Pennsylvania, US) with a combined generation capacity of 2,490 MW, to be deactivated in June 2021
- the 13 MW W.H. Sammis diesel power plant in Ohio (US), to be deactivated in June 2021
- the fifth, sixth and seventh units of the W.H. Sammis coal-fuelled power plant (Ohio, US), with a total combined capacity of 1,490 MW, to be deactivated in June 2022
Until then, the facilities will continue normal operations. PJM will review the closure proposals and it estimates that one or more of these units may be needed for grid reliability purposes, information and estimates of the costs and timing will be provided to FirstEnergy.