Capital Power has announced plans to acquire two natural gas facilities within PJM. The plants are valued at $2.2 billion and have a total capacity of 2.2 GW. The deal is expected to close later this year.
This includes Hummel Station, a combined-cycle natural gas facility in Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania and the Rolling Hills plant, a combustion turbine natural gas facility in Wilkesville, Ohio.
This is a positive step forward for the PJM Interconnection. Today, PJM is struggling to integrate the megawatts needed to keep up with surging power demand from data centers, manufacturing plants, and electrification.
The consequences? Delayed projects, rising electricity costs, and states losing out on critical investments. Data centers, factories, and other high-tech industries will relocate to regions with more reliable power.
To provide dispatchable power in the short term, installing more natural gas capacity still remains the best option. Considering rising demand, the best policy for the environment is a shift from coal to gas.
If markets like PJM aren’t sufficiently rewarding dispatchable power, we will end up underbuilding gas while still using more coal anyway. This is already happening, with PJM increasing its coal-fired power purchases for the first time in 3 years.
