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ComEd Bribery Scandal Clouds Picture for Exelon’s Illinois Nuclear Plants

Exelon wants state legislation to keep its Illinois nuclear plants open. Subsidiary ComEd’s involvement in a bribery scandal is not helping politically.  GreenTech Media, JEFF ST. JOHN AUGUST 04, 2020  Exelon may be forced to close its Illinois nuclear plants if state legislation is not passed to bolster their eroding financial prospects. But subsidiary utility Commonwealth Edison’s involvement in a bribery scandal has complicated this and other key policy efforts in its home state.CEO Chris Crane outlined these challenges during the Chicago-based utility’s second-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday. Last month, ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors to avoid criminal liability in an alleged bribery scheme involving Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. …….

Exelon owns the country’s largest nuclear generating fleet and other generation assets; it operates utilities in Illinois, Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.   ……

Exelon’s nuclear plants hang in the balance

A December decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is forcing mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM to impose minimum prices on a wide array of state-supported grid resources. That rule is expected to include Exelon’s Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear power plants, which receive hundreds of millions of dollars per year in zero-emissions credits created by Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs Act.

Exelon is seeking to extend the zero-emissions credits to its Braidwood, Byron and Dresden nuclear plants, which failed to clear PJM’s last capacity auction in 2018 and could face early retirement without additional financial support.

While FERC has not approved PJM’s plan to comply with its order, and PJM has not yet set a date to resume its long-delayed capacity auction, “there’s a strong sense…that some of the nuclear units will not be picked up in that auction” when it occurs, Crane said. “Some are uneconomic right now, and some may become uneconomic.” ……..

the bribery scandal has driven a wedge between the utility and state lawmakers, while the COVID-19 pandemic forced the legislature to curtail much of its work this spring and focus on responses to the public health crisis. The Clean Energy Jobs Act failed to move ahead during an emergency session in May, as did an alternative, less ambitious clean energy bill called Path to 100.

llinois Governor JB Pritzker suspended the Energy Working Group involved in crafting the Clean Energy Jobs Act after the deferred prosecution agreement was announced, saying through a spokesperson that future legislation “will not be written by utility companies.”

…….Absent a legislative solution to Exelon’s nuclear plants’ challenges in Illinois, Crane said, “If we can’t find…a path to profitability, we will have to shut them down.”

But Exelon “will not allow the balance sheet to be further deteriorated by operating noneconomic assets,” he said. Exelon has successfully won zero-carbon credits in New York and New Jersey, but it has also laid plans to shut down its Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania if that state does not create similar supports.

Formula rate extension and Chicago grid takeover both remain uncertain