We shut down the coal plant in Bow. Now, we’re going to shut down every dirty fossil fuel peaker plant in the region that is polluting our communities!
What’s a peaker plant?
Peaker plants are power plants that run only occasionally, during times of “peak demand” for electricity (as during an especially cold snap or a heat wave). Merrimack Station was a peaker plant, running for only a few weeks each year.
Like Merrimack Station, most peaker plants are powered by dirty fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas. And like Merrimack Station, they are often situated in rural, poor and/or environmental justice communities, increasing the health burdens on people living in those communities.
In some places, peaker plants are already being replaced by battery storage. Granite Shore Power has indicated that it plans to create battery storage on the site of two of its properties, Merrimack Station in Bow and Schiller Station in Portsmouth.
But many dirty peaker plants remain across the country.
Why Target New England’s Peakers?
In theory, peaker plants are necessary to ensure that we have reliable power at all times. In practice, however, they are incredibly expensive and inefficient. To keep them available on standby, the regional grid manager awards them millions of dollars in “forward capacity payments.” Those payments come directly from ratepayers, and they could be much better spent on clean alternatives.
In addition to converting peaker plants to battery storage, we can pursue better demand response–the practice of encouraging or even rewarding consumers for temporarily reducing their energy use, even by only a little, during times of peak demand. Demand response is not only practical and cost-effective; it makes us more mindful of our relationship to consumption and to each other.
Because most peaker plants are oil and fracked gas, they contribute significant amounts of pollution to the air, water, and climate. Peakers are significant contributors to local pollution, directly harming the communities that they are placed in. All kinds of negative health impacts from asthma to cancer are heightened in communities that reside next to peaker plants. Most peakers are in communities that are largely BIPOC, immigrant, and/or poor because it was easier for the companies that own these plants to take advantage of people who are marginalized in other ways.
The No Coal No Gas campaign has built an extraordinary, sustained community reaching from Maine to Connecticut. These activists bring expertise in everything from knowledge of grid management to policy research to mutual aid. We are well-equipped to help lead a rapid, regional transition away from fossil fuels to more just and sustainable futures.
DO YOU HAVE A PEAKER PLANT IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
Find out on this map courtesy of Clean Energy Group of VT. We’ll have a map on our website here soon.
