ML19220A723
| ML19220A723 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 02/16/1971 |
| From: | Nassikas J FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION |
| To: | Price H US ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION (AEC) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19220A724 | List: |
| References | |
| NUDOCS 7904240177 | |
| Download: ML19220A723 (7) | |
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.EDI.7-AL PC'VER COM M'SSION b ~ O -, -, g WAsHMToN, C.C.
2t416 IN REPLY RE7ER T8, Regulatere
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FEB 161971 Mr. Harold L. Prira Director of ReguL2 tion.
U. S. Ato:nic Energ C" sion
'Jashington, D. C. 205J 5
Dear Mr. Price:
This is in rapI7 to your letter of October 23, 1970, requesting ccc=ents of the Federal Pcwer Cc==ission on the environ = ental i= pact of the _Three Mile Island Nuclear S tation, AEC Docket Nos. 50-289 and 50-320.
In keeping with the Interim Guidelines on I=plementation of the National Environmental Policy Act cf 1969, the FPC is pleased to forward its co:::nnrs on the above project in ter=s of its area of expertise as designated in the Me=orandum of July 29, 1970, of the Council on Environ = ental Quality and the Cc==ission's responsibility under the Federal Power Act.
Sincerely, W
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John N. Nassikas Chairman
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w Federal Power Commission Comments Relative to the Environmental Statement on the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station of the Metropolitan Edison Company and the Jersey Central Power and Light Company Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the role of expertise assigned to the Federal Power Commission as designated in the Memorandum of July 29, 1970, of the Council on Environmental Quality, the cc =ents herewith are directed to the relationship of the electrical capacity of this unit to the prospective power supply and demand situation of the system and region involved: to the fuel supply situation related to the type of plant and its environmental effects; and comments c _:he altarmative means of meeting the power supply needs for which this unit is proposed.
It is understood that other agencies will review and comment on specific aspects relating to effects of the unit on air and water quality and other environmental f actors.
The Need for Power The _Ihree, Mile Island Nuclear Station is being developed on an 8l4-acre site on Three Mile Island in the Su,squehanna River, approximately ten miles southeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in Dauphin County.
Unit No. I with a capacity of 830 r.egawatts is scheduled for commercial operation in November 1972. Unit No. 2 with a capacity of 830 megawatts is scheduled in commercial operation in May 1974. These units are in the comprehensive plans of the Mid-Atlantic Area Coordination Group to the future electric power needs of the region.
meet Metropolitan Edison Company and Jersey Central Power and Light Company, wholly-owned subsidiaries of General Public Utilities Corporation (GPU),
share ownership of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Sta tion.
General Public Utilities Corporation, a private utility holding company of five utilities, is operated as a system, the General Public Utilities Integrated System.
The companies of the GPU Integrated System in turn participate in the PJM Interconnection with eight other Mid-Atlantic electric utility systems. The PJM system serves an area of 48,000 square miles with a population of over 20 million people in Pennsylvania, >b ryla nd, New Jersey, relaware and the District of Columbia, through the opera ting pool known as the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Intercennection.
This coordinating agency with offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, schedules the operation of all the generating facilities of its member companies on a mini =um cost basis with respect to minute by minute x,.,
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.~ demand of the en i_d9tt sec.t--.rea.
The PJM ccapanies and other utilities in the area participate in the Mid-Atlantic Area Coordinating Group (>RAC) which coordinates systes planning of the group.
In view of the relatianship of the applicant and the applicant's obligation to the Council and the cc=mitment to the PJM Interconnection, the need for power from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station Units 1 and 2 should be evaluated in relation to load-supply situation of the GPU Integrated System and that of the MAAC at the time when the proposed plant is scheduled for service.
In 1969, the GPU Integrated System experienced a vinter peak load of 4,061 megawatts while system capacity totaled 4,160 megawatts.
The reserve cargin totaled 99 megawatts or 2.4 percent of peak load.
In 1972, the year that Unit No. 1 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station is to be placed in servicc, tne system is anticipating a winter peak lead of 5,130 megawatts. System capacity at the time of this winter peak load is expected to total 6,215 =egawatts, with a reserve margin of 1,085 megawatts or 21.2 percent of peak load.
If the in-service date of Unit No. 1 is delayed, the reserve margin during the winter peak will be 255 =egawatts or 5.0 percent of the winter peak load.
The GPU Integrated Syste= is a winter peaking system which will shift to a su=mer peaking systen in 1973. Assuming that Unit No. I
- 1. available for service for the 1973 su==er peak, net capacity of 6,676 =egawatts will be available to =cet the st==er peak load of 5,668 megawatts. Reserve =argin will total 1,008 megawatts or 17.8 percent.
Unit No. 2 will be in service to meet the 1974 su==er peak load of 6,190 megawatts at which ti=e the total capacity will be 7,422 megawatts.
Reserve margin will total 1,232 megawatts or 19.9 percent.
If Unit No'. 2 is not available for the 1974 summer peak period the reserves will be 402 megawatts or 6.5 percent.
MAAC is a st==er peaking system and anticipa tes a 1973 su==er peak load of 33,061 megawatts.
Net capacity is anticipated to total 39,685 megawatts with a reserve margin of 6,624 megawatts or 20.0 percent.
If Three Mile Island Unit No. 1 is not in service by the 197'
"=mer peak, reserve =argin will be li=ited to 17.5 percent.
Un:
. 2 is scheduled to be in service to meet the 1974 sum =er peak leas approxt=ately 35,888 =egawatts, with a capacity of 44,249 me.a cts.
Reserve margin will total 8,361 megawatts or 23.3 percent of peak load.
If Unit No. 2 is not available, reserves will be 7,531 megawatts or about 21 percent.
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aree Mile Island units on schedule is necessary to provide needed reserve margins in the PJ:1 pool during 1973 and thereafter.
Due to unanticipated load growth, delays in placing new generating f:rilities in service, and high forced outage rates of several new lar.v.cnits, the pool has been faced with less than desired reserves for the..: few years.
This trend is expected to continue. The pool has be_n forced to resort to load reduction measures at times of heaviest demands for the past several years. These included reduced voltage on fcur occasions in 19c9 and en seven occasions in 1970 to maintain suf ficient operating reserves. Occasionally more drastic measures have been required. To avoid unduly s=all generating capacity reserve cargins and related proble=s of system relia 2ility, it is imperative that the Three Mlle Island and other scheduled generating facilities be placed in service on tice.
The Fuels Situation The Mid-Atlantic area generally has e :cellent access to abundant supplies of bitc=inous coals in Pennsylvania, Western Ibryland, Virginia and Uest Virginia, uhich f all costly in the =edium and high sulfur category. Plants aJong the. Atlantic seaboard also have excellent deep-water access to world residual fuel oil carkets. The availability of natural gas and the transmission capability of existi:rg pipelines limit the use of natural gas for utili, purposes in the Mid-Atlantic area.
In 1968, two-thirds of the fossil fuel requirements of electric utilities in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania 2nd Delaware were by coal, one-quarter by residual fuel oil, and less than one-tenth by met natural gas.
It has been reported recently that 93 percent of the residual iuel oil burned on the East Coast came fromtforeign sources, most of it from Venezuela.
This pattern of fossil fuel utili:ation in the Mid-Atlantic area can be expected to change in the future if domestic reserves of natural gas continue to diminish and if the imposition of stIfur limitations on utility fuels becomes core severe. The state of Netr Jersey currently limits sulfur content of bituminous coal to 1.0 percant.
The limit set for anthracite coal is 0.7 percent and that on No. 5 :nd 6 fuel oil is 1.0 percent.
In the state of Pennsylvania where the proposed' plant is to be located, sulfur limits are currently in force in Allegheny County and in the city of Philadelphia, but statewide limits are ;cder consideration and it appears likely that by the time cf the in-serrice date of the proposed plant, the entire GPU Integrated System may be under some kind of sulfur limitation.
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If this should occur and if 11mits as 1cw as those in New Jersey should be i=postd, it is doubtful whethe any new coal burning electric generating plant in New Jersey and Penns/lvania would be able to burn the cost economically available ional coals without the addition of a process for desulfurizing the sti_
gases. Although several such pro-cesses have been developed, and s 2e are appreaching com=ercial scale testing, their acceptability for =ajor cottercial operations still re=ain to be proven.
A natural gas fired alternative station with capacity equal to the proposed Three Mile Island Nuclear Station would require about 17,000 Mcf of natural gas per hour or about 130,000,000 Mcf annually.
Currently, in at least some parts of Pennsylvania and neighboring states existing gas suppliers have found it nectasary to refuse to attach new gas loads in excess of 25 Mcf per hour tc 1;;1: 1 cad grcwth to levels that can be supplied. When these restrictions =ight be lifted is uncertain.
Accordingly, the lack of availability of an adequate fuel supply precludes the construction of a gas fired alternative generating station at this time.
Under these circumstances, a ;; sil fuel plant as a substitute for the proposed nuclear. plant does nct cppear to be the best means of pro-vidiag for the electric pcwer needs of northern New Jersey and the entire PJM Interconnection service area.
The Imcort of Power The purchase cf fira power from other cembers of the Mid-Atlantte Aree Coordinating Council or from companies outside the Mid-Atlantic area does not appear to present a superior alternative to the construction of the Three FEle Island Nuclear Station as planned. The expected reserve margins of GPU and MAAC systems in the foreseeable future are not regarded as high enough to obviate the need for the capacity of the proposed plant.
Su=mer reserve =argin expectaticas for the years to 1975 of neighboring operating entities from which imported power would cost likely be pro-vided is shown in the following table:
Sum =er Reserve Ibrgin in Megawatts and Percent of Peak Load System 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 New York Pool 56f2/30.1 5341/26.7 8133/38.6 7115/31.7 8296/35.0 Va.-Carolina Group 2172/11.4 3335/15.8 4743/20.4 6303/24.7 5624/20.0 TVA 2444/16.5 2844/17.2 3329/18.4 38C4/19.2 5079/24.2 ECAR 7893/17.2 8528/17.1 11773/22.0 12176/20.9 15007/24.2 U-
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. The reserve margin for the above pools for the years indicated does not provide for maintenance of generating equipment.
In view of the substantial number of large units that will be included in the total system capacities of these groups of systems, the fact that a number of these units will be re'atively new, the lack of certainty with respect to construction schedules and other unknown factors, it is unlikely that the reserve margins of these groups will be sufficient to support material amounts of sales of firm power to PJM systems.
The Federal Power Commission favors th? ccnstruction of interconnec-tions between systems and encourages the coordination of system operations on a regional basis as a sound practice for gaining the advantages of economy of scale and creating the inter-system capacity for emergency support. The Commission, however, does not overlook the penalties in terms of reliability of supply which are imposed on utility cperations when sites of generation are far removed from the load centers served.
In the case of the proposed Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, it appears that the applicant stands to gain an important advantage in strengthened system reliability by planning the proposed plant within the applicant's own sarvice area and close to the industrial loads of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Hydro Pouer Alternates A hydroelectric installation as a substitute for the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station =ust be ruled out as a practical consideration.
The available conventional hydro sites lack sufficient potential to satisfy the firm power requirements of the CPU Integrated System.
Pumped-storage hydroelectric sites are available within economic trans-mission distance of the system's service area, however, these facilities are suitable for peaking capacity only and cannot be censidered an alternative for a base-load generating facility such as the proposed nuclear plant.
Water Qualitv The Three Mile Island Nuclear Station Unit No. 1 and 2 of the Metropolitan Idison Company is located on an Island within the reservoir of the York Haven Project No. 1838 under license to the York Haven Power Company. By virtue of its responsibilities under the Federal Power Act f or licensing of non-Feceral hydroelectric projects, the Federal Power Commission has a direct interest in the water quality of
. streams and reservoirs 2.
-__t':2d with the hydroelectric pro jects which i
come under its jurisdiction. Water quality of the York Haven reservoir as it might be affected by the siting of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, l%it No. I within the reservoir came under investigatica at the time of approving the transfer of license and joint use of project lands and waters in connection with the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station.
In its investigation the Commission considered the amount of water that would be withdrawn and the consu=pcive use resulting from evaporation.
The thermal and radiological ef fects attendant to the proposed use of water were also considered.
A copy of the Com=1ssion's order of de:ober 8, 1969, approving the transfer of license for Project No. 1888 to the York Haven Potter Cc=pany and the use ci project lands sa; waters (subject to appropriate conditiens) for operation of Unit
.v. 1 ou tae Three Mile Island Nuclear Station is attached.
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