Refueling Outages Delivered Big Win For Clean, Reliable Energy While Fueling Economy For Long-Term Benefit of NYS
SCRIBA, NY — The three recently completed refueling and maintenance outages at Exelon Generation’s upstate New York nuclear energy facilities, R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant, James A FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant and Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, are already demonstrating the value of the Clean Energy Standard and its zero-emissions credits first-hand.
In total, the three refueling outages resulted in a combined investment of $310 million.
For the Ginna and Nine Mile Point facilities alone, Exelon Generation invested more than $180 million in the purchase of new fuel, capital upgrades and outage execution costs.
The James A. FitzPatrick facility was recently acquired by Exelon Generation, which helped to fund refueling outage costs over $130 million.
These important investments utilize thousands of internal and external skilled labor personnel to complete the work.
Together, the three stations play a pivotal role in helping New York achieve its clean energy goals and can produce more than 3,350 megawatts of carbon-free electricity – enough to power more than 3 million homes.. In 2016, these 24/7 energy facilities generated over 26 million megawatt-hours of emissions-free energy.
This accounts for more than 19 percent of all energy produced in New York State and avoids 16 million tons of harmful carbon emissions and thousands of tons of NOx emissions annually.
“The Clean Energy Standard is critical not only to helping our state meet its clean energy goals, but also extremely important to the region I represent and its economy,” said Senator Patty Ritchie. “These investments will help to ensure New York State will continue to benefit from clean, reliable energy and that its nuclear power plants continue to support more than 25,000 much needed direct and indirect jobs across our state.”
With the CES in place, three reactors in upstate New York were refueled between January and May, in an unprecedented schedule of refueling in the region that required thousands of union workers’ expertise.
“More than 3,000 additional workers joined full-time nuclear employees to complete the refueling outages,” said Ted Skerpon, president and business manager, IBEW Local Union 97. “The consistent nature of refueling outages ensures a steady stream of work for tradespeople from across New York. We’ve come to count on this work every year.”
The union workforce needed for the refueling outages lodged in area hotels, patronized nearby restaurants and shopped in local stores, providing a significant boost to the local economies.
“Ginna Nuclear Power Plant is an important economic engine in our community,” said Donna Burolla, president, Ontario Chamber of Commerce. “Local businesses welcome the additional workers each refueling outage.”
Read full article at Oswego Country Today
