Exelon Corp. is considering selling its nuclear plants, Bloomberg reports.
The business wire reported Monday afternoon that sources close to the energy company say it’s considering selling some of its non-utility assets, but a final decision hasn’t been made.
“As we most recently communicated on our second quarter earnings call, we regularly review our corporate structure and overall mix of businesses to determine how to best create value and position our businesses for success,” Exelon spokesman William Gibbons wrote in an email.
Exelon owns 21 nuclear reactors, the most of any energy company in the country, according to its website.
The company already is receiving $235 million in annual subsidies from the state of Illinois to support its Clinton and Quad Cities plants, and announced plans in August to shut down two of its other Illinois plants, the Byron and Dresden Generating Stations, by next year. State and local lawmakers reliant on the plants for jobs and tax revenue are lobbying to keep them open, but Gov. JB Pritzker has balked at requests for more funding.
As demand for nuclear power has declined over the past decades, nuclear reactor operators have become strapped for cash and increasingly reliant on state bailouts to stay afloat. In Ohio, dire financial straits at the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants allegedly served as the catalyst for Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s elaborate $60 million bribery scheme, considered by federal prosecutors the largest in state history.
There are 57 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 94 reactors in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Since 2013, ten reactors have closed, and at least five will follow in the next decade, according to Beyond Nuclear, a Maryland-based nonprofit.
“We will not run plants and lose free cash flow or earning on assets that are not supporting themselves,” said Exelon CEO Christopher Crane in the company’s August earnings call. “It is very unfortunate for the communities that we serve, the employees, but we will not let the balance sheet get further deteriorated by non-profitable assets…so, we’re doing everything possible to prevent that, but it’s a reality.”
