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J.P. Morgan is in the process of lining up bidders for Eversource’s generation assets – power plants and hydropower dams – which the utility must sell off this summer as part of deregulation of the industry.

Coal-fired power plants are closing all over the country, undercut in price by gas-fired power plants, so fans of the Eversource coal power plants in New Hampshire are nervous about this transition period. If nothing else, their closure would remove a lot of local property taxes from the host communities. Concerns really focus on the two old, small (50 MW each) Schiller plants in Portsmouth – the 480-MW Merrimack Station plant in Bow is newer and has a scrubber which cuts out mercury emissions, although not carbon emissions, so it seems safer.

Here’s an idea for all of them: Turn them into compress-air power storage plants. A Canadian firm called Hydrostor has proposed doing exactly this at closed power plants, taking advantage of their connection to the grid and their water supplies. Greentech Media has a story.

Probably won’t happen, but it’s an interesting concept.

 

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