EXELON MAY SHUT DOWN SOME OF ITS NUCLEAR PLANTS

Exelon warned that it may shut down some of its nuclear plants if the economic environment does not improve, according to Exelon President and CEO Christopher Crane during an investor’s call held late last week. Exelon, which operates 10 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, said the competition from natural gas along with a harsh energy policy towards nuclear has hurt the profitability of operating a nuclear plant. “Despite our best every year in generation, some of our nuclear units are unprofitable at this point in the current environment due to low prices and bad energy policy that we’re living with,” Crane said. “Assessing the market operations and commercial policy solutions has been the focus right now. A better tax policy and energy policy would be the clear answer, but if we do not see a path to sustainable profits, we will be obligated to shut units down to avoid the long-term losses,” he said. Crane indicated that Exelon would know for sure if any plants would close by the end of this year. If the company does decide to shutdown some of its plants, it would add to a growing list of plants, including Entergy’s Vermont Yankee and Dominion’s Kewaunee Power Station, that entered premature shutdown citing economic reasons.