PEAK Coalition urges New Jersey to mandate storage at gas peaker plant

A coalition of environmental justice groups has urged New Jersey state regulators to tie the permit of a gas peaker plant that powers New York City to batteries, rather than just gas.

The PEAK Coalition – UPROSE, THE POINT CDC, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and Clean Energy Group – has filed comments demanding that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) attach that condition to the Title V Operating Permit renewal for Bayonne Energy Center, according to Clean Energy Group’s publication of the filing.

The coalition is pushing the NJDEP to force the plant to upgrade its turbines from simple-cycle to combined-cycle, which the coalition said are more efficient. The advocacy group has also asked NJDEP to add at least 65 MW/780 MWh of battery storage to hybridize with the plant.

According to a recent comment letter from the coalition, a battery system of that size would replace 81% of one representative turbine unit’s operating events because most such events last 12 hours or less. It said the change would reduce plant-wide sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide emissions by about 4% and nitrogen oxide emissions by about 5%.

The coalition has also argued that New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law gives the NJDEP the authority and obligation to impose such conditions. It noted the cumulative pollution burden already faced by Bayonne’s surrounding community, according to a separate summary from the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Bayonne Energy Center’s operator, TigerGenCo, is separately developing its own battery storage addition to the site, a 50 MW/200 MWh lithium-ion system known as Bayonne Energy Center III, which has been moving through New Jersey and Bayonne municipal approvals since 2023, according to city redevelopment filings. That project is smaller than what the PEAK Coalition is actually requesting.

New Jersey has separately moved to expand battery storage statewide. Governor Mikie Sherrill signed executive orders in January directing state regulators to advance up to 750 MW of battery energy storage as part of a broader push to address rising electricity prices and projected capacity shortfalls.