IRVING, Texas, April 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vistra (NYSE: VST)
and its subsidiary, Electric Energy, Inc., are today announcing the
retirement of the Joppa Power Plant by Sept.
1, 2022, three years earlier than previously disclosed. The
revised closing date is part of an agreement Vistra has reached in
order to settle a complaint brought by the Sierra Club in 2018
before the Illinois Pollution Control Board concerning allegations
of environmental exceedances occurring prior to Vistra's ownership.
Due to the mounting financial and legal pressures that now come
from operating coal plants, the company is renewing its call for
passage of the Illinois Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Act
to facilitate Vistra's $550-million
repurposing of coal plant sites across central and southern
Illinois.
"The hardest decisions we make are those that impact the
dedicated men and women of our plant workforce and the local
communities. In this case, we agreed to shut down the Joppa plant in light of the legal
uncertainties and significant economic challenges facing the plant.
First and foremost, we will work with our team members and the
impacted communities to ensure a just transition, including our
commitment to pay $1.1 million in
incremental property taxes over three years," said Curt Morgan, chief executive officer of Vistra.
"As part of this just transition, we remain focused on passing the
Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Act, which will enable us
to reinvest and repurpose sites like Joppa into zero-emission generation, using
existing infrastructure, creating jobs, and adding to the property
tax base. We have a construction-ready plan to invest $550 million, including approximately
$59 million at the Joppa location, to transform coal plant sites
into renewable energy centers."
Vistra is in the process of working with the plant's local union
leadership and will honor the plant's locally negotiated
commitments regarding severance and outplacement benefits, as well
as wages, health care, and other benefits during the remainder of
operations.
Vistra strives to provide workers and communities with as much
advanced notice as possible ahead of a plant retirement and to be a
part of the transition to a new future.
"Joppa's 2022 closure is an
unfortunate reminder that our remaining MISO fleet continues to
face challenges and is at risk of rapid closure for a variety of
factors, most notably legal and economic challenges – the latter
due to the dysfunctional MISO market in Illinois and significant maintenance costs.
Vistra would like to reinvest in and responsibly reuse its
Illinois plant sites so local
communities like Joppa and
Massac County can economically
benefit from the transition to renewable electricity generation
rather than being left as a non-productive former plant site,"
Morgan continued.
Repurpose and Reinvest in Illinois Coal Plant Sites and
Communities
Through the Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Act, Vistra
proposes to invest more than half a billion dollars to develop
approximately 300 MW of utility-scale solar and 175 MW of battery
energy storage. This nine-site construction program would help
Illinois more than triple its
in-state utility-scale solar generation capacity and more than
double its battery energy storage capacity – all by 2025.
If the Act passes, Vistra intends to build a stand-alone 45-MW
battery energy storage facility at the Joppa plant, which does not have the site
characteristics to support utility-scale solar. The new battery
system would store enough electricity to power approximately 22,500
homes.
According to Dr. David Loomis of
Strategic Economic Research, during the implementation of the
Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Act, the state and local
communities will benefit from a significant boost to economic
activity. His analysis projects that, from 2022 to 2025, the
initiative will:
- support 2,957 full-time jobs across the state;
- create $461 million in statewide
earnings for workers; and
- generate $1.7 billion in total
economic output in the state.
The economic impact study projected that constructing the
battery energy storage facility at Joppa would support more than 100 local jobs
and spur more than $10 million in
economic output in Massac
County.
Just Transition for Plant Community and Potential for
Economic Growth
Joppa Power Plant is a significant generator of property tax for
local governments in the area. In order to provide additional
support for the community, Vistra will pay property tax payments in
excess of market value for three years after the plant's closure,
based on a percentage of the plant's 2019 tax bill. Once the plant
is closed, Vistra will pay more than $1.1
million from 2023-2025 to local taxing entities.
The commitment to the Joppa
community is consistent with Vistra's desire to help provide a
responsible transition for local communities following plant
closures. When Vistra closed four plants in 2019 to comply with
revised state regulation, the company voluntarily offered local
communities a $6 million-plus
property tax bridge to make the transition easier, given the rapid
retirement of the plants. Discussion and implementation of local
tax agreements continue for all nine Illinois plant communities that have been or
will be impacted by coal plant closures.
Building utility-scale solar and energy storage facilities will
improve the local tax base and provide a reliable source of
property tax revenue for decades to come. The company estimates the
new taxable value at renewed plant sites will be 350-400% more than
the land values of closed plant sites, including nearly double the
current property taxes for the Joppa Plant. In addition, the
company is committed to building and operating these projects with
union labor and to contracting with diverse-owned businesses and
suppliers to participate in and benefit from Vistra's
investment.
More information about the Illinois Coal to Solar and Energy
Storage Act (HB 3446 / SB 529) can be found at
www.renewillinoispower.com.
Joppa Power Plant opened in 1953 and currently has approximately
115 employees. The plant is a multi-unit site, including six coal
units with a combined capacity of 1,002 MW and five natural gas
units with a combined capacity of 239 MW.
About Vistra
Vistra (NYSE: VST) is a leading Fortune 275 integrated retail
electricity and power generation company based in Irving, Texas, providing essential resources
for customers, commerce, and communities. Vistra combines an
innovative, customer-centric approach to retail with safe,
reliable, diverse, and efficient power generation. The company
brings its products and services to market in 20 states and the
District of Columbia, including
six of the seven competitive wholesale markets in the U.S. and
markets in Canada and Japan, as well. Serving nearly 4.3 million
residential, commercial, and industrial retail customers with
electricity and natural gas, Vistra is one of the largest
competitive electricity providers in the country and offers over 50
renewable energy plans. The company is also the largest competitive
power generator in the U.S. with a capacity of approximately 39,000
megawatts powered by a diverse portfolio, including natural gas,
nuclear, solar, and battery energy storage facilities. In addition,
the company is a large purchaser of wind power. The company is
currently constructing a 400-MW/1,600-MWh battery energy storage
system in Moss Landing,
California, the largest of its kind in the world. Vistra is
guided by four core principles: we do business the right way, we
work as a team, we compete to win, and we care about our
stakeholders, including our customers, our communities where we
work and live, our employees, and our investors. Learn more about
our environmental, social, and governance efforts and read the
company's sustainability report at
https://www.vistracorp.com/sustainability/.
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SOURCE Vistra Corp.