BYRON – Exelon sounded the alarm on two of their nuclear plants and the state legislature didn't respond. Now Exelon says a third plant could be closing if the financial situation isn't remedied, the Quad City Times reports:
The challenging electricity market conditions facing Exelon in Illinois are an issue sweeping the nuclear industry and prompting other states to consider energy reform.
"We see Quad-Cities and Clinton as the economically challenged plants today. But if these two plants go away and you don't resolve the problem, the problem just moves to two new plants," said Bill Stoermer, Exelon spokesman for the Quad-Cities station in Cordova. "This is an issue not just for Exelon and not just Illinois, but across the country."
For Exelon, he said, "Three Mile Island (in Pennsylvania) and Byron (in Illinois) could be the next two plants in the fleet to be discussed as 'economically challenged.'"
Like Quad-Cities and Clinton, the Byron plant has struggled to clear its energy auctions, which is the process by which producers sell their energy to the market. In the latest energy auction with PJM Interconnection LLC, a regional transmission organization, not all of Byron's capacity cleared the auction's price, he said.
The Byron plant also faces many of the same challenges that led to Exelon's announcement last week that it will begin the process to shut down Clinton in 2017 and Quad-Cities in 2018. The decision came after a proposed Next Generation Energy Plan failed to get out of Illinois Legislature's regular spring session.
More at Quad City Times.
