Power Company Pushes To Proceed With Peabody Generator Plan

PEABODY, MA — The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company is pushing forward in its plans to build a gas and oil surge capacity generator at the Waters River Substation site on the Peabody/Danvers line.

The utility said on Friday it filed with the state Department of Public Utilities to resume the long-planned Project 2015A that was put on a minimum 30-day pause on May 11 amid growing public outcry from local officials, climate advocacy groups and neighbors concerned about health and quality-of-life issues associated with a fossil fuel-powered generator.

The MMWEC held a public forum with Peabody residents last month, and met with Danvers elected and municipal officials last week, ahead of a deadline this week whether to either resume the project or give DPU a timeline for when it expects to resume the project.

"MMWEC appreciates the recent input on the project from everyone," said Ron DeCurzio, CEO of MMWEC, in a statement. "As proven leaders in the incorporation of carbon-free technologies, MMWEC and its members continue to look for ways to increase the carbon-free generation in their energy portfolios, while ensuring they are providing the required capacity, grid reliability, and dependable service for their customers."

MMWEC officials said late Friday afternoon that as part of a revised proposal the Peabody Municipal Light Plant will decommission the 20-megawatt generator currently at the site when the new, more efficient 55-megawatt generator goes online.

State Rep. Sally Kerans (D-Danvers) at the Danvers meeting last week joined Peabody health officials in requesting MMWEC voluntarily do a full Environmental Impact Report and comprehensive health impact assessment before proceeding with the project.

"This plant will affect two overburdened neighborhoods in Danvers and Peabody," Kerans told Patch after that meeting. "If MMWEC has any respect for our communities they will pause this and agree to both a community health impact assessment and an environmental review."

The MMWEC made no mention of such reviews in its statement released on Friday but did say it "exercised due diligence and re-examined the project (including termination); project participant needs, obligations and rates; and alternative technologies (including battery storage). MMWEC also reexamined environmental justice issues and concerns related to the project."

In response to some of those concerns, the MMWEC said a proposed 200,000 oil storage tank will not be installed on-site, and that the facility will now use urea, a non-hazardous substance, rather than ammonia, as a scrubbing agent for NOx emissions.

The utility said it will also continue to explore the use of "green hydrogen" to replace natural gas and diesel oil as a primary fuel source, but allowed the viability of that may not be determined for some time.

The MMWEC has repeatedly said the new generator is expected to operate about 239 hours a year under extreme weather conditions — such as catastrophic winter storms or summer heatwaves — and that the new generator is the most reliable and cost-effective way to meet the capacity energy needs of its member municipal utilities — including Peabody and Marblehead.

Opponents have said any new generator that uses fossil fuels is a generator "of the past" and is not in line with the spirit of the recently passed climate bill that puts the state on the road to becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

The MMWEC said on Friday that it was Wednesday when its Board of Directors voted to resume the project.

The MMWEC is requesting the process resumes on July 29 with that the date the deadline for initial briefs as it seeks authority to issue tax-exempt, long-term debt to finance the project. It requests reply briefs be due on Aug. 5.

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(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.)

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