Grid Operator Sounds Alarm Over Power Plant Shutdown That Could Impact Millions

A grid operator warned that a power plant shutdown might wreak havoc next year.

Smoke emerges from a large stack at the coal-fired Brandon Shores Power Plant in Baltimore, Md., on March 9, 2018. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

A large U.S. grid operator warned Wednesday that the pending shutdown of a coal power plant in Maryland may imperil electricity supplies for millions of Americans.

Talen Energy in April told PJM Interconnection, a grid operator in 13 states, earlier this year that it will shut down its 1,280-megawatt plant in Brandon Shores, near Baltimore, in June 2025. In 2020, Talen Energy said that it came to an agreement with the Sierra Club environmentalist to cease “coal-fired operations” by that time at the plant along with two others.