Indian Point power can be replaced, study says

BUCHANAN, N.Y. >> Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council say a study they commissioned puts to rest any lingering doubts about replacing the power now supplied by the Indian Point nuclear plant. They also say closing the plant would not cause big increases in electric bills.

Entergy announced earlier this year it will begin shutting down the plant’s reactors in 2020 and that both will be offline by 2021.

Indian Point is about 50 miles southeast of Kingston, on the eastern shore of the Hudson River.

Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay said the study confirms what its members already knew.

“We are already on our way to closing Indian Point, without reliability issues, without price spikes, and with virtually all of the replacement power needed coming from renewable sources or efficiency,” Gallay said.

The report, by Synapse Energy Economics, says electricity from Indian Point can be replaced largely with increased energy savings and renewable energy sources coupled with transmission and other replacement projects already underway.

Bob Fagan of Synapse Energy, the lead author of the report, says the people conducting the study worked with four scenarios that factor in New York state’s move to clean and renewable energy standards.

“We looked at the overall pattern of costs from 2016 out to 2030 — and we compared the scenario with Indian Point in service to the scenario with Indian Point not in service — and, essentially, you have other resources, along with the effect of energy efficiency combined, turn into a total wholesale cost ... just under one percent more in the scenario with Indian Point retired compared to the scenario with Indian Point in service,” Fagan said.

The report also says New York state carbon emissions can continue on their downward trajectory without Indian Point.

“The most cost-effective replacement resource scenario is an increase in the level of energy-efficiency procurement in New York state,” the Synapse report says.

Jerry Kremer, chairman of the pro-nuclear power group New York AREA, said that for more than 40 years, Indian Point “has been the backbone of New York’s electric grid, safely providing 25 percent of the power used in the New York City region and surrounding area — with zero carbon emissions.”

He said Indian Point opponents have, for years, “minimized the cost and environmental disruptions that will occur if the plant closes. Yet in places where nuclear plants have closed, carbon emissions have skyrocketed and numerous economic disruptions occurred.”