Exelon needs $580 million in additional revenue annually to keep its Illinois nuclear fleet in operation, Senior Vice President Kathleen Barron told the Illinois Commerce Commission last week.
Exelon has been saying for months that unless pricing for the output of its Illinois nuclear stations improves, it may need to shut them down. Barron said the company figures it needs about $6 more per MWh for continued operation. That would translate to rate increases of about 8% in Chicago and more downstate, where prices are cheaper.
And even that might not do it. “While a $6/MWh payment or even less would be sufficient for some units, $6 may not be enough for others,” the company said in a statement. “Each of our 11 nuclear units in Illinois has a different cost structure and different requirements.”
Barron’s comments are part of a national campaign by Exelon to gain credits for its carbon-free output, and cut or reduce the federal wind production tax credit, to let its plants compete. Company lobbyists and executives have been delivering a consistent message since the spring. (See Exelon in Lobbying Push to Save Ill. Nukes.)
Barron said the result of closing the nuclear stations would be significant for Illinois. “If the units at risk of closing today — representing 43% of the state’s nuclear generation — retire, they cannot be mothballed and later brought back online,” Barron said. “Together, they represent more than 30 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions, given that they will need to be replaced with fossil generation to provide the around-the-clock electricity needed to serve customers in the state.”
More: Crain’s Chicago Business; FierceEnergy
Dominion Starts $2B Undergrounding Project
Dominion Virginia Power is starting a $2 billion project that will underground 4,000 miles of outage-prone lines by 2026.
The target represents about 11% of the company’s overhead distribution lines, and placing them underground should result in increased reliability, the company said. About a third of the company’s 58,000 miles of distribution lines are now underground.
It said it will spend about $175 million a year moving the lines. The company is expected to file an application for a rate increase to pay for the project with the Virginia State Corporation Commission by the end of October. The rate increase would go toward the project, it said.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch
South Carolina Official Upset Duke Hasn’t Removed Ash Yet
A South Carolina Public Service commissioner said he thought Duke Energy was already removing stored coal ash from its sites in the state. He was surprised to learn it hasn’t started yet.
“I think it’s somewhat of a surprise to this commission that no ash is being removed because this has been an ongoing situation that we’ve heard about and talked about,” Commissioner G. O’Neal Hamilton said. “We’ve seen reports of trucks moving in North Carolina and I assumed that was happening here and it’s a little disappointing.”
The issue arose after environmentalists said that the company’s W.S. Lee Steam Station has coal ash lagoons that are leaking toxins into the surrounding area. Duke said it will present the commission with plans for the removal by the end of the year. Duke is converting the plant to burn natural gas. A Duke spokesman said plans are being made to remove coal ash from a number of sites in North Carolina as well, but they have not yet been implemented.
More: Greenville Citizen Times
TVA’s Top Attorney Retiring After 35 Years
Ralph Rogers, Tennessee Valley Authority’s top lawyer, is retiring at the end of the year. Rogers started with the federal authority in 1979 and became TVA’s senior litigation attorney and ethics officer. He was the highest paid attorney in TVA history, making $1.9 million last year and $2.5 million the year before. High executive salaries at TVA have drawn fire from former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, who said “most East Tennessee attorneys do not make a quarter of that amount (paid to Rodgers) in one year.”
Under the corporate-like board structure adopted for TVA by Congress in 2006, pay levels for the general counsel and other top officers at TVA have risen significantly over the past decade to more closely align with investor-owned companies rather than the government-level pay grades used by TVA in the past.
More: Chattanooga Times Free Press
PSE&G Breaks Ground on Landfill Solar Project
Public Service Electric and Gas started construction of a 10-MW solar plant on a former garbage dump in New Jersey, the latest and largest system of solar arrays the company is building. The project will sit atop a capped dump in Bordentown.
It’s part of a state-wide effort to use brownfields and under-used industrial sites to build solar plants to deliver energy to the grid. The company is planning to spend $247 million on this and similar projects. It is eying plans to build an even larger solar plant on another former dump in New Jersey.
More: Philly.com