Salem officials are counting on a newly launched study to help the city prepare for the potential end of the Salem Harbor Power Station and to shed light on just when that might be.
Officials say the study, which will examine the future of the plant and possible reuse of the site, is timely given recent indications that the plant’s owner, Dominion, is looking to close the 60-year-old coal-burning facility.
Dominion recently requested that ISO New England, which manages the regional power grid, permanently delist the Salem plant from having to be available for future power. And Mark McGettrick, the firm’s chief financial officer, said at a financial conference that within five years, “We would expect Salem Harbor plant to shut down.’’
Mayor Kimberley L. Driscoll said the potential closure of the plant has been a concern of the city’s for some time and “and is even more so now as a result of some of the latest activity.’’
“Any time you have your largest taxpayer threatening closure . . . it would be concerning,’’ Driscoll said, noting that Dominion, which pays the city $3 million a year in property taxes and another $1.75 million in a host fee, is “far and away our highest taxpayer.’’
Driscoll said the city would need to either substantially increase property taxes, limit services, or combine the two options to make up for the lost revenue.
“That’s why we think it’s important to plan now,’’ she said.
The plant, which began operation in 1951, is located on a 65-acre site on Fort Avenue.
It generates about 745 megawatts, which is enough electricity to power about 745,000 homes. Three of its generating units are coal-fired, and one is oil-fired.
While an important source of local revenue and jobs — it employs about 150 people — the plant has long been a target of environmentalists, including the Conservation Law Foundation, which this past summer sued Dominion for allegedly exceeding smokestack emission limits.
Driscoll said the study, funded through a $200,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, will help “provide us with an analysis of the energy market and whether the power from Salem is expected to be needed, and give us some ideas about the potential life’’ of the plant going forward, and “identify different reuse options and how we can best transition if that’s necessary.’’
Dominion spokesman Dan Genest said the company is supportive of the study and intends to be a full participant in it.
Regarding speculation about the plant, Genest said the intent of McGettrick’s comments was, if new federal pollution rules take effect as scheduled, “We do not intend to spend any capital dollars to install environmental controls [at the Salem plant]. And those regulations are supposedly on a five-year time frame.
“So if everything stays the same . . . we would probably shut down Salem Harbor within five years. But there are a lot of variables that can change that. So we are not limiting ourselves by saying it’s just going to be five years.’’
Councilor at Large Joan B. Lovely said that while she cannot predict when it will occur, she is not surprised to hear that the plant may close, noting, “I think it’s past its useful life — it’s over 60 years old, a coal burning plant. . . . It appears [Dominion] does not want to put any of those significant costly environmental upgrades into it.
“I’m concerned because it’s our biggest taxpayer,’’ she said. “Those dollars aren’t going to be made up very easily.’’
But Pat Gazemba, co-chairwoman of the Salem Alliance for the Environment, a group that has long pushed for tighter pollution controls at the plant, said she is heartened by indications the facility is facing closure.
“We have been living in close proximity to this 60-year-old dinosaur, and we will be happy to see it go and something else take its place,’’ said Gazemba, adding that she is “mindful and concerned’’ about the need to help workers who might be displaced by the loss of jobs and for the city to find a way to generate future revenues from the site.
Driscoll said she wants to await the findings of the study before speculating on how the site might be reused. But she noted that with its location on a deep water port and connection to the regional power grid, the site would be suitable for some other power generation, including renewable energy. She said other commercial, residential, or recreational uses were also possible.
State Representative John Keenan, a Salem Democrat, noted that he and Senate Majority leader Frederick E. Berry, a Peabody Democrat, had secured language in the 2008 Green Communities Act that provides for short-term state funding to help cities hurt by the loss of tax revenue resulting from the state’s participation in a regional effort to reduce carbon emissions.
He said that provision expires at the end of next year, but that he and Berry are pushing to extend it.
Ian Bowles, state secretary for energy and environmental affairs, said this week that Dominion’s filing to permanently delist the plan “is to my mind essentially a definitive statement that this is the beginning of the end’’ for the Salem plant. “I don’t think there is any ambiguity about whether or not they are shutting down. I think the only question is when.’’
Noting the emphasis the state is placing on energy efficiency and renewable energy, Bowles said, “From the state’s perspective, it’s appropriate that all the older plants consider what their alternatives are, whether it be repowering or shutting down for another use,’’ adding that it should be done in an “orderly fashion’’ that takes into account the needs of the host community.
