Exelon Moves to Pull Plug on Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant -- Update
May 30 2017 - 11:04AM
Dow Jones News
By Ezequiel Minaya
Exelon Corp. said Tuesday it has begun the process of closing
down its money-losing Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and
will complete the shutdown by September 2019 unless lawmakers make
changes to help the facility compete in an increasingly cut-throat
energy market.
Last week, the company warned that Three Mile Island, located in
Pennsylvania, didn't clear required capacity auction conditions. It
said the plant has continued to struggle because of low wholesale
power prices and energy policies the company said don't "value
zero-emissions nuclear energy." It said Three Mile Island hasn't
been profitable in five years.
Power producers bid in annual capacity auctions for long-term
contracts to supply electricity; Three Mile Island hasn't cleared
its past three annual auctions.
Power demand in the U.S. has been flat for nearly a decade,
creating a battle for market share between different generation
sources. Natural gas has displaced a significant amount of coal
generation, and the gas industry is also taking aim at nuclear
power.
Last year, natural gas generated 33.8% of the electricity in the
U.S., according to federal data. Nuclear power generated 19.7%.
Coal generated 30.4%. The rest came from renewable sources,
including hydroelectric dams.
Exelon said Tuesday that it will immediately take a one-time
charge ranging from $65 million to $110 million this year in
connection with the move.
The company said the facility employs 675 people while
contracting with an additional 1,500 workers. Exelon's Chief
Executive Chris Crane urged local legislators to help keep the
doors of the facility open by providing subsidies or similar
assistance.
"[Pennsylvania] has an opportunity to take a leadership role by
implementing a policy solution to preserve its nuclear energy
facilities and the clean, reliable energy and good-paying jobs they
provide," Mr. Crane said.
State lawmakers in March formed a bipartisan Pennsylvania
Nuclear Caucus to focus discussion on the issue. Nuclear power
makes up about 37% of the state's total power production.
Pennsylvania houses five nuclear stations, giving it the
second-largest nuclear capacity in the U.S., according to a
statement from the caucus.
Members of the caucus weren't immediately available for
comment.
In 1979, a partial core meltdown in one of the reactors of the
Three Mile facility led to five days of panic and 14 years of
expensive clean-up. The incident didn't cause any fatalities but
did have a sizable impact on the winding-down of the nuclear power
industry in the U.S. in the 1980s and indelibly marked public
perception of the safety of nuclear plants.
A handful of nuclear power plants have shut down in recent
years, most of them forced out of service by intense competition
from inexpensive, reliable natural gas-fired power plants as well
as solar and wind farms, which get federal subsidies. Operators say
several more nukes are threatened because they can't turn a
profit.
Exelon and other electricity producers in several states are
asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support to
keep costly nuclear power plants in business.
The utilities claim the nuclear reactors should be given special
compensation because they are important to local economies and the
electrical grid's stability, and because they don't emit greenhouse
gases or other pollutants.
Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 30, 2017 10:49 ET (14:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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