Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth to close by 2019
Citing “poor market conditions,” smaller revenues, and an increase in the cost of operations, the company that owns Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth said Tuesday it would close the plant by June 2019.
The owner, Entergy Corporation in New Orleans, said it has given notice to ISO New England, the operator of the electric grid about the closure, and the exact closing date will be decided next year.
Pilgrim Station opened in 1972, located in Plymouth, a town 40 miles south of Boston. It is the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts.
The power station employs about 650 people and generates about 680 megawatts of electricity, “enough to power more than 600,000 homes,” according to Entergy.
“The decision to close Pilgrim was incredibly difficult because of the effect on our employees and the communities in which they work and live,” Leo Denault, Entergy’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“Our people at Pilgrim are dedicated and skilled, a wonderful blend of young professionals and seasoned, experienced veterans, who for decades have been generating clean power and contributing millions of dollars of economic activity to the region,” Denault continued. “But market conditions and increased costs led us to reluctantly conclude that we had no option other than to shut down the plant.”
The plant was sold to Entergy in July 1999.
In its release announcing the closure, Entergy said the plant was “undermined by unfavorable state energy proposals to subsidize renewable energy resources at the expense of Pilgrim and other plants.”
