England Generating Station
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England Generating Station is a retired power station in Marmora, Cape May, New Jersey, United States. It is also known as BL England power station.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| England Generating Station | Marmora, Cape May, New Jersey, United States | 39.290556, -74.633556 (exact) |
The map below shows the exact location of the power station.
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1, Unit 2: 39.290556, -74.633556
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | Start year | Retired year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | retired | coal: bituminous | 136 | subcritical | 1962 | 2014 |
| Unit 2 | retired | coal: bituminous | 163.2 | subcritical | 1964 | 2019 |
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner | Parent |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Rockland Capital LP [100%] | Rockland Capital LP [100.0%] |
| Unit 2 | Rockland Capital LP [100%] | Rockland Capital LP [100.0%] |
Background
The England Generating Station consisted of two coal-fired units commissioned in 1962 and 1964, making it the oldest coal-fired power plant in New Jersey. A third unit at the plant ran on oil.[1]
Retirement
In June 2012, RC Cape May Holdings LLC said it will shut down one coal-fired unit at the B.L. England power plant and retrofit a second coal-fired unit to a natural gas turbine and will re-fuel a third, oil-burning unit with natural gas. The agreement resolved violations of the Clean Air Act that occurred when the plant was under the ownership of Atlantic Electric, Conectiv, and Pepco Holdings Co. The previous owners did not make pollution-control upgrades as required by the federal Clean Air Act when they made significant upgrades to operational features of the plant.[2]
The 2012 agreement called for the cessation of operation of coal-fired Unit 1 by fall 2013; until that occurred, the company was required to take steps to minimize emissions from this unit. Unit 2, which burns coal, and Unit 3, which burns fuel oil and only operates during peak demand periods, were to be converted to natural gas by May 2016.[2]
Unit 1 was shut down in May 2014. A permit to convert Unit 2 from coal to a 447 MW gas plant was issued in April 2016 by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The gas plant was planned for 2020. The plant permit, as well as permits for pipelines to transport the gas to the plant, were being challenged by environmental groups.[3]
In April 2017, it was reported the plant would continue to operate under a directive from PJM Interconnection, the operator of the nation's largest power grid. According to PJM, the grid operator wanted the units to keep running for another two years while transmission upgrades were completed "to maintain the reliability of the power grid." Those upgrades were not expected to be finished until 2019.[4]
In February 2019, it was reported the England plant would be converted into a wind energy facility. The transition to wind power may make it harder for the proposed Cape Atlantic Reliability Project to get approval, a proposed 22-mile pipeline that would have carried natural gas across Cumberland and Cape May counties to B.L. England, primarily to fuel the new gas plant.[5]
Unit 2 was retired in May 2019.[6]
In October 2023, the smokestack at the England Generating Station was imploded, completing the retired coal plant's demolition. A cooling tower and boilers had previously been demolished in 2022 and earlier in 2023.[7][8]
Repurposing site for offshore wind
According to reporting from October 2023, the site of the former coal plant and its existing connections to the electrical grid may be repurposed into a connection point for some of New Jersey's proposed offshore wind farms.[8] Wind projects under consideration off the New Jersey coast include Leading Light Wind and the Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project.
Ownership
On August 17, 2006, Pepco announced that its subsidiary Atlantic City Electric Company reached an agreement to sell the facility to RC Cape May Holdings, LLC, an affiliate of Rockland Capital Energy Investments, LLC for $12.2 million.[9]
Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from England Generating Station
In 2010, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, quantifying the deaths and other health effects attributable to fine particle pollution from coal-fired power plants.[10] Fine particle pollution consists of a complex mixture of soot, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Among these particles, the most dangerous are those less than 2.5 microns in diameter, which are so tiny that they can evade the lung's natural defenses, enter the bloodstream, and be transported to vital organs. Impacts are especially severe among the elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease. The study found that over 13,000 deaths and tens of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal plant emissions. These deaths and illnesses are major examples of coal's external costs, i.e. uncompensated harms inflicted upon the public at large. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency of companies to avoid locating power plants upwind of affluent communities. To monetize the health impact of fine particle pollution from each coal plant, Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to each 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.[11]
Table 1: Death and disease attributable to fine particle pollution from the England Generating Station
| Type of Impact | Annual Incidence | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Deaths | 19 | $140,000,000 |
| Heart attacks | 32 | $3,500,000 |
| Asthma attacks | 300 | $16,000 |
| Hospital admissions | 15 | $340,000 |
| Chronic bronchitis | 11 | $5,000,000 |
| Asthma ER visits | 13 | $5,000 |
Source: "Find Your Risk from Power Plant Pollution," Clean Air Task Force interactive table, accessed February 2011
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ "Report Volume XXIV, Number 11," Pipeline Intelligence, archived June 28, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Coal-fired B.L. England power plant to switch to natural gas," New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, June 25, 2012
- ↑ "N.J. power plant dispute: Will coal-to-gas just keep an environmental 'dinosaur' alive?" Philly.com, Aug 8, 2016
- ↑ Tom Johnson, "N.J. coal-fired power plant to remain open for 2 more years," NJ.com, April 17, 2017
- ↑ "It polluted N.J. for years. Now Murphy wants to convert coal plant to wind," NJ.com, Feb 28, 2019
- ↑ "N.J.'s largest remaining coal plant is shutting down for good. Clean energy may be its future," NJ.com, Apr 30, 2019
- ↑ "WATCH: Smokestack at BL England power plant demolished," Energy Central, October 27, 2023
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Former coal-fired power plant razed to make way for offshore wind electricity connection," Associated Press, October 26, 2023
- ↑ "Atlantic City Electric Sells Generation Asset", Pepco Holdings press release, August 17, 2006
- ↑ "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source," Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.
- ↑ "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool," Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010
Additional data
To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
