Nuclear power operators in a panic about their uncompetitive industry

We’re all coming together, racking our brains, saying what’s out there, what can we do, whether it’s market reform or raising awareness of the value of nuclear?” said David Brown, Exelon’s vice president of federal affairs.

Nuclear giants urge market changes to thwart closures Hannah Northey, E&E reporter Greenwire: Thursday, February 6, 2014 The country’s largest nuclear operators yesterday reiterated their calls for market changes to prevent a spate of reactor closures in markets that they say are becoming too reliant on subsidized renewables and cheap gas Exelon Corp. — the United States’ biggest nuclear operators in competitive markets — warned at a Platts energy conference in Washington, D.C., that electricity markets are rewarding the lowest-cost, near-term energy sources, namely cheap gas and subsidized wind.

Being overlooked are merchant nuclear power plants that provide carbon-free base-load power, they said…..

Other factors are playing out in the day-to-day energy markets. Mohl said nuclear plants are competing with wind and solar using production and investment tax credits, which he said created unfair footing for Entergy’s 5,000 MW of merchant nuclear power….

Clean energy groups have repeatedly accused the nuclear industry of making wind and solar a “scapegoat” for their financial woes, and have said the real issue is the need for more transmission as the cost of renewables drops (Greenwire, June 12, 2013). Dave Hamilton, director of clean energy for the Sierra Club, said the markets are changing and nuclear operators, also highly subsidized, cannot “turn back the clock.” “They’re fighting the markets … trying to make a bad bet a good bet,” Hamilton said.

The trends have brought uncertainty to the power markets, triggering about 3,000 MW of announced capacity retirements in the Northeast — including Entergy’s Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and the Brayton Point coal plant in Massachusetts — because there was “too much uncertainty” in the markets, Mohl said. Entergy is slated to close Vermont Yankee, about 5 miles south of Brattleboro, Vt., in December, and it will be decommissioned in 2015, Mohl said…….

“We’re all coming together, racking our brains, saying what’s out there, what can we do, whether it’s market reform or raising awareness of the value of nuclear?” said David Brown, Exelon’s vice president of federal affairs. “The frustrating thing is there’s no silver bullet; it’s going to be an all-arrows-in-the-quiver response.”…..

Brown said Exelon is eyeing shaky finances at five of its merchant nuclear plants — including Clinton, Quad Cities and other units not made public — where losses have wiped out revenues at the company’s other 19 nuclear facilities. Brown said those decisions will be based on movement with gas markets and what Congress decides to do with the production tax credits…..http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059994177