Grid operator sounds alarm as coal plant shutdown threatens power for millions

A power grid operator that serves millions of Americans across the mid-Atlantic is warning that a planned coal-fired power plant shutdown will severely threaten electricity supplies and occur before new power sources come online.

PJM Interconnection – which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, serving 65 million consumers – said the forthcoming shutdown of Brandon Shores coal power plant located outside of Baltimore will disrupt the reliability of the region's grid.

"There has been a strong push for quite some time to get coal power out of Maryland," Christopher Summers, the founder and president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"Until these current risks to our grid are fully dealt with, it's a mistake to close reliable, baseload power plants too soon. That should be a concern to consumers in Maryland and businesses in Maryland that rely on dependable power.”

In 2020, Talen Energy announced it had reached an agreement with Sierra Club to shutter Brandon Shores and two other major coal power plants in the region.

According to the company's current ESG commitments, it plans to entirely eliminate the use of coal in its wholly-owned generation facilities like Brandon Shores, which generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power nationwide.

BIDEN ADMIN QUIETLY DEVELOPING SETTLEMENT WITH GROUPS SEEKING TO TEAR DOWN KEY POWER SOURCE. However, according to PJM Interconnection, prematurely shutting down Brandon Shores – which has a capacity of 1,295 megawatts, enough to power more than a million homes – would spark an imbalance in the grid.

Shuttering such a vital power source requires the regional grid operator to divert electricity generated elsewhere, but transmission upgrades in Maryland aren't expected to be finished until 2028, three years after the planned Brandon Shores closure.

"We are always mindful of regional electric system reliability and how it relates to electricity consumers in Maryland," added Maryland Public Service Commission spokesperson Tori Leonard in a statement, noting that PJM is responsible for reliably operating the regional transmission grid.

BIDEN ADMIN OKS MAJOR PACIFIC NORTHWEST GAS PIPELINE IN BLOW TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS, DEMS. "Closing an efficient, low-cost energy producing plant like Brandon Shores is just one more way America is surrendering our energy advantage to China and Russia," Rep. Andy Harris, the sole Republican member of Maryland's congressional delegation, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, who entered office in January, has called for the state's power grid to be entirely powered by green energy by 2035 through reducing energy consumption and "Supercharging investments" in wind and solar developments.

"Ørsted's projects will support the creation of thousands of jobs in Maryland, power nearly 300,000 homes with renewable energy, and help the state achieve its goals of 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2031.