NRG Energy‘s (NYSE: NRG) Astoria Gas Turbine Power LLC sent a Dec. 22 letter to the New York State Public Service Commission saying that it intends to mothball Astoria gas turbines (GTs) 8, 10 and 11 at its plant in Queens, New York.
GT 8 has a nameplate capacity of 19.2 MW, while GT 10 and GT 11 each have a nameplate capacity of 31.8 MW. The company said that each of the units, which were commissioned in 1970, have lately experienced operational challenges and need major overhauls to keep operating.
Four additional Astoria units – GTs 5, 7, 12 and 13 – which lately have been in a forced outage status, will be transitioned by the New York ISO as of Jan. 1 into the Installed Capacity Ineligible Forced Outage (IIFO) category. Since GTs 8, 10 and 11 were put into forced outages prior to May 1, 2015, they don’t qualify for that newly-created NYISO category. NRG asked the commission to allow these three units to enter the mothball category on Jan. 1, at the same time as the other four units are put into the IIFO status.
