New Jersey nuke retirement may boost gas demand

Exelon Energy this week retired its 645MW Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Forked River, New Jersey, a long-anticipated move that could result in higher demand for natural gas.

The plant's shutdown could lead to a 179mn cf/d (5mn m³/d) increase in natural gas demand if the lost output was replaced by natural gas-fired generation, according to an Argus analysis.

Oyster Creek will be the sixth nuclear power plant to retire in the US in the past five years. Nuclear generators have struggled in recent years to keep their aging plants economically viable amid the rise of more efficient natural gas and cleaner renewable generation, a factor that may have hastened Oyster Creek's shutdown.

The plant, located 50 miles (80km) east of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, began service in December 1969, making it the oldest commercially operated nuclear power plant in the US. Exelon in 2010 said it would retire Oyster Creek in December 2019 even though the plant's license is not set to expire until 2029. But the company in February announced it would shut this fall at the end of its fueling cycle.

The plant is one of four nuclear power stations in the US that have planned retirement dates more than a decade before their operating licenses are set to expire.

One factor in the decision to shut Oyster Creek early was estimated costs of more than $800mn to install cooling towers in order to meet new environmental standards, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

New Jersey is home to two other nuclear power plants: the 1,179MW Salem Generating Station and the 1,200MW Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station. Oyster Creek alone represents 15pc of the state's total installed nuclear capacity and about 7pc of its electricity production, the EIA said.