Exelon presses for help at state, federal levels, E & E, Jeffrey Tomich, E&E reporter EnergyWire: Friday, May 20, 2016 The nation’s largest nuclear operator put on the full-court press yesterday in Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Ill., for policies to keep some its struggling plants afloat amid increasing competition from wind energy and a glut of cheap shale gas that’s depressing energy prices.
The case for helping preserve Exelon Corp.’s endangered nuclear plants — the Clinton and Quad Cities plants in Illinois and the R.E. Ginna and Nine Mile Point plants in New York — isn’t new.
Chicago-based Exelon has threatened for more than two years to shut money-losing plants in an effort to prod state lawmakers to act. In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has come to the rescue with an evolving plan to help existing plants survive the downturn in energy markets (EnergyWire, March 18). In Illinois, Exelon is proposing a similar remedy, but it remains to be seen if the General Assembly will come to the rescue.
Earlier this month, Exelon’s chief executive, Chris Crane, said he has authority from the board to shut the “distressed assets” if lawmakers don’t approve a proposal requiring up to $290 million a year in subsidies from Illinois consumers to keep them profitable.
The company offered a revamped proposal on May 5 and gave the Legislature until the end of the month to pass it (EnergyWire, May 6). If not, the 1,087-megawatt Clinton plant would be closed when its obligation to run ends a year from now, Crane said. The Quad Cities plant is required to run an extra year, but unless the bill passes or the plant clears this year’s PJM Interconnection capacity auction for 2018-19, it, too, will be shut down.
If Exelon’s nuclear proposal isn’t complex and controversial enough, it is woven into a sweeping, 316-page energy bill that would rewrite Illinois energy policy……
Exelon said the two plants have lost a combined $800 million over the last six years, and they are projected to lose another $500 million over the next five years.
“We are unable to sustain those type of economic losses any longer,” Tim Hanley, the company’s senior vice president of nuclear projects, told the committee……
Exelon’s claims were challenged, however, by consumer groups including AARP and by the Illinois attorney general, as well as by Illinois industrial energy users and downtown Chicago building owners. The same groups opposed the nuclear proposal a year ago.
Cara Hendrickson, an assistant attorney general, told committee members the measure was nothing more than “another nuclear bailout, dressed up differently.” …..http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060037598 Twitter: @jefftomich Email: jtomich@eenews.net
