Planned Peabody Peak Generator Public Hearing Set For Next Week

PEABODY, MA — North Shore residents looking to have one more — and perhaps last — say on the planned peak-energy generator at the Waters River substation can look to offer it at a state Department of Environmental Protection public hearing next week on the 60-megawatt generator's Carbon Dioxide Budget Emissions Control Plan.

The public hearing regarding the generator, which has been at the center of much dispute between public officials and climate advocacy leaders opposed to the fossil fuel-powered energy source and the wholesale utility company that says the generator is necessary to provide reliable power at relatively stable rates in the case of an extreme weather event, will be on Dec. 7 at the Torigian Senior Center in Peabody at 7 p.m.

A remote link to the hearing can be found here.

The Proposed ECP Approval sets forth the methodologies for monitoring the CO2 mass emissions and the net electric generation. The state Department of Environmental Protection said the purpose of the ECP Approval is to "codify these monitoring methodologies under the state CO2 Budget Trading Program regulation."

The application and the Mass DEP's proposed decision are available here. Comments on the proposed decision must be submitted in writing by Dec. 14. Comments may be submitted via the Public Access Portal, via electronic mail to edward.braczyk@mass.gov, or via mail to the Northeast Regional Office at 205B Lowell Street, Wilmington, MA, 01887.

"Comments could be restricted to (those) about monitoring but a crowd wearing the color blue in solidarity and holding our fantastic signs can highlight what we want the DEP to hear," said the Peabody-based advocacy group Breathe Clean North Shore in an email to supporters.

The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company Project 2015A — which the state Department of Public Utilities approved for $85 million in funding in July 2021 after months of appeals and fierce objections from opposition groups and some elected officials — is designed to provide residents in 14 MMWEC communities, including Marblehead and Peabody, with peak-capacity energy at below-market prices in the case of extreme weather conditions that cause spikes in the open energy market.

The MMWEC in 2021 hit a 30-day "pause" on the project, which moved through the state approval process in relative obscurity for nearly six years. The MMWEC and Peabody Municipal Light Plant then made some alterations aimed at lowering the emissions impact on the surrounding communities — but ultimately got the go-ahead for much of the framework for the original plan the utility said will operate approximately 239 hours per year and be 94 percent more efficient than generators across the state.

But those opposed to any new generator that operates on fossil fuels have kept up the fight — arguing that the generator risks becoming a "stranded asset" based on the state's "Climate Roadmap" that says Massachusetts must become carbon neutral by 2050.

The MMWEC has said the state Department of Public Utilities did dutifully consider many of these aspects during the funding approval process and ultimately found them not to be grounds to prevent the project.

"As a long-term hedge, this is only one part of a participating municipal light plant's overall power portfolio strategy, which also includes multiple renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar and hydro," the MMWEC said in a statement to Patch in March.

A video recording of the hearing will also be available here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)