Pilgrim nuke goes offline as Northeast buffeted by winter storm
In both New England and New York, frigid air has increased demand for natural gas, pushing gas prices higher and resulting in increased wholesale electricity prices. Dual-fuel generating units have been key to maintaining reliability, with many switching over to cheaper oil to generate energy.
Friday and Saturday are likely to be the final — and harshest — days of a winter cold snap that has sent temperatures plunging all along the eastern seaboard. In New England, the grid will have to do without the 685 MW Pilgrim nuclear plant, which went offline shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday.
The cause of the outage is still under investigation, Entergy said in a statement, but it involved one of two power lines that allow the plant to feed electricity to the grid. The plant will remain offline to conduct maintenance activities that cannot be performed when it is generating. The exact timing of its full reboot is considered “business sensitive,” and was not disclosed.
