| October 15, 2009 |
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Energy reliability is essential to our way of life – from flipping on a light switch and turning on the television to starting the washer and dryer and running the vacuum cleaner. This is why reliability is an indispensable element of electricity production.
While much public attention is rightly paid to the successful delivery of electricity to homes and businesses in New Jersey, reliability of service also depends on successful power generation.
For PSEG, investments to improve generation reliability go hand in hand with protecting the environment. The importance of this became clear last week when the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that 13 New Jersey counties violate federal clean air standards and gave the state five years to bring its air quality into compliance.
PSEG is investing some $2 billion to improve the dependability and performance of its New Jersey power plants to help ensure an adequate supply of electricity. The projects will also serve to protect the environment.
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The installations at our coal plants will reduce the emissions covered by the federal clean air standards by 80-to-90 percent or more. Equipment upgrades at PSEG’s Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants added approximately 200 megawatts of emission-free nuclear energy to the grid. Water injection systems have been installed to curtail emission from our natural gas units, and plans are underway to add additional clean, natural gas peaking units to PSEG’s fleet in 2012.
Environmental responsibility includes addressing greenhouse gas emissions, and PSEG is among the nation’s cleanest power producers, having the sixth-lowest carbon emission rate among the 25 largest generators. PSEG recently announced a new carbon reduction strategy, setting the goal of reducing its 2005 carbon footprint 25% by 2025.
A white paper entitled PSEG’s Carbon Reduction Strategy: A Pathway to a Greener Economy is available at www.pseg.com/strategy. Among other key points, the report emphasizes that PSEG will continue to implement and expand a three-pronged strategy for addressing climate change that is focused on energy efficiency and renewables as well as clean central station generation.
The company has a record of achieving environmental targets. In 2002, PSEG signed on to the EPA’s Climate Leaders Program and voluntarily pledged to reduce its U.S. greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 18% from 2000 levels by the year 2008. The company achieved a 31% reduction.
What’s your view? Please let us know at Opinion@PSEG.com.
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