Solvable Problem:
Peaker Plants
Families Rise Up rally at the Berlin VT peaker plant, August 2024
Peaker plants are power plants that run on the days when electricity needs are at their highest. These days are usually the ones that are remembered for being burning hot or freezing cold.
Vermont peaker plants are:
Powered for only ~10 hours per year.
Run on oil.
Funded by a total of about $3.6 million in ratepayer money this year. This is about 10-20% of our utilities bills going to what are called forward capacity payments (FCP) to keep the peaker plants on standby.
What are peaker plants?
350VT rally at the Burlington peaker plant, August 2024
Peaker plants are typically smaller, older, and less efficient than regular electric generating plants.
The nature of peakers is to turn on and off quickly. During those ramp up and ramp down periods, they do not have to control their air pollutant emissions, which make them dirtier than a typical plant. The air pollution they emit includes particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).
This high pollution disproportionately affects already burdened communities where these plants are located.
Peaker plants encourage peak energy usage to continue rather than incentivizing reductions in energy use through demand-response, weatherization, and clean energy solutions like ground and air source heat pumps, thermal energy networks, solar, and wind.
Peakers run on subsidies that could be directed instead toward clean energy infrastructure.
Problems with peakers
What we want
Subsidies for peaker plants should be redirected to build clean and affordable energy solutions:
Incentivize curbing energy demand first, subsidizing consumer choices to reduce consumption and energy-efficiency measures such as weatherization, energy-efficient appliances, and air and ground source heat pumps.
Build out thermal energy networks and public transportation to reduce the amount of electricity needed to heat, cool, and power homes and cars.
Use and store solar and wind electricity to meet peak demand.
Utilize battery storage: Most 2-8 hour lithium ion batteries can cover at least 50 percent of the times a peaker needs to turn on.
Use consumer battery storage, including cars and buses, to sell energy back to utilities companies during peak hours.