Thursday, API along with Advanced Energy Economy, the American Wind Energy Association, the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, the Electric Power Supply Association, and the Natural Gas Supply Association released new study to estimate the cost of the Trump Administration’s proposed plan to bail out uneconomic coal and nuclear plants across the country. The study was commissioned by the trade associations listed above and completed by The Brattle Group.
Looking at a range of out-of-market payment options to keep the national fleet of coal and nuclear plants available for operation – and not counting the additional cost of actually generating electricity from the facilities – The Brattle Group provided the following estimates of direct costs:
- $16.7 billion per year, or roughly $34 billion for two years as proposed, if every coal and nuclear plant in the country were given a uniform ($ per unit of capacity) support at the level of the average financial shortfall experienced by such plants;
- $9.7 billion to $17.2 billion annually, or roughly $20 billion to $34 billion over two years, if only those plants now facing shortfalls were given payments sufficient to cover their operating losses; or
- $20 billion to $35 billion annually, or $40 billion to $70 billion total, if power plant owners were also granted a return on their invested capital in addition to payments for operating shortfalls.