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ArcLight’s Generation Bridge recently purchased the 4.9 GW power generating NRG energy plant at 1866 River Road in Middletown. Local environmentalists are pleased the firm will not pursue a prior plan for a 375 MW fossil-fired gas project.

The NRG energy plant at 1866 River Road in Middletown

MIDDLETOWN — The power company that has purchased the NRG natural gas and oil plant on River Road says it will not pursue the prior owners’ plan to build a 375 megawatt fossil-fired facility, which drew opposition last year from environmentalists.

In a statement, Generation Bridge, a subsidiary of ArcLight of Boston, said it intends to develop renewable energy and energy storage at the site.

The expansion of the 1866 River Road plant was “vigorously opposed” last year by the Jonah Center and members of Middletown’s First Environmental Collective Impact Network Project A Success.

A number of concerns prompted individuals and members of the Jonah Center and others opposed to the plan to speak out, Middletown Energy Coordinator Michael Harris said.

“One of the objectives is, Connecticut supplies more than its fair share of regional electricity,” he said. “A lot goes out of state directly or indirectly.”

“We suffer the consequences of a polluted area, and don’t receive a benefit, because part of the surplus serves the rest of New England,” he added.

“The River Road plant in Middletown is an obvious site for a storage facility due to the high-voltage transmission line associated with the site and due to the 200 MW of offshore wind currently being developed in Long Island Sound, which will require an updated grid and nearby storage capacity,” ArcLight Managing Partner and Founder Daniel R. Revers said in a prepared statement.

NRG, which was seeking air permits to replace two aging turbines at the plant, is a “dirty peaking plant,” meaning it only runs during times of high demand, Harris said. The system is especially taxed during the summer months, when people run their air conditioning as the system hits its maximum load, he added.

It would have allowed the plant to emit up to 1 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere per year — a net increase of 891,701 tons per year above the existing facility, according to the Sierra Club.

That is equal to 13 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from current power generation in Connecticut, it said.

The plant runs on turbines, which were built in the 1950s and early ’60s, that run only for a few days in the summer, Hall has said. NRG’s intention was to keep it operating 182 days per year, he added.

“It would have supported a new 375 MW fossil gas turbine generator at a time when the state is trying to wean itself from electricity generated by fossil fuels,” Jonah Center for Earth and Art Executive Director John Hall wrote in his Jan. 29 newsletter.

The issue is balancing electricity production with electricity demand, Harris said. “As demand goes up, they bring on more power plants. The less efficient (and cost-efficient) plants run only for a short period of time when there’s a more severe need.”

Kleen Energy, located nearby at 1349 River Road, runs a natural gas turbine — which is a more modern plant, Harris said. The original proposal had been for the NRG plant to undergo modernization, however, that plan was tabled.

The common council terminated the tax agreement with NRG energy last June.

“The city believes that there’s a net benefit in the tax revenue received,” Harris said. “There are a lot of health penalties externalized and not figured into that accounting. I question the fact that it’s a net benefit,” especially when the additional health costs of having the plant located in Middletown is considered, he said.

“It may not justify that tax revenue,” he added.

The plan would have increased particulate matter emissions, which are very damaging to the lungs,” Hall has said. Most of these particles are very small and are easily inhaled, which causes lung damage, asthma and threatens respiratory health, he added.

There is a great push nationally for less use of environmentally damaging fossil fuels.

“That calculus is like a can kicked down the road continually and we’re running out of time to address climate disaster,” Harris said. This has to stop everywhere, not just the state.”

A similar situation recently played out in Killingly when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed to a request by the regional electric grid operator — ISO-New England — to keep the proposed natural gas power plant out of its future plans, according to the Connecticut Mirror.

Cassandra Day is an award-winning multimedia journalist and resident of the North End of Middletown who has been reporting nearly every facet of the city for over two decades.