Exelon to Retire Three Mile Island Generating Station in 2019
May 30 2017 - 7:45AM
Business Wire
Focus is on site employees and community as
lack of state and federal energy policies that properly value
zero-emissions energy drives decision
Exelon Corporation today said it will prematurely retire its
Three Mile Island Generating Station (TMI) on or about September
30, 2019, absent needed policy reforms. Officials met with
employees and informed community leaders, and pledged continued
open dialogue as they prepare for this transition.
“Today is a difficult day, not just for the 675 talented men and
women who have dedicated themselves to operating Three Mile Island
safely and reliably every day, but also for their families, the
communities and customers who depend on this plant to produce clean
energy and support local jobs,” said Chris Crane, Exelon president
and CEO. “Like New York and Illinois before it, the Commonwealth
has an opportunity to take a leadership role by implementing a
policy solution to preserve its nuclear energy facilities and the
clean, reliable energy and good-paying jobs they provide. We are
committed to working with all stakeholders to secure Pennsylvania’s
energy future, and will do all we can to support the community, the
employees and their families during this difficult period.”
Exelon is taking the first steps to shut down the nuclear plant,
including:
- Informing key stakeholders, which will
include sending PJM a deactivation notice and making permanent
shutdown notifications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within
30 days;
- Immediately taking one-time charges of
$65-110 million for 2017, and accelerating approximately $1.0-1.1
billion in depreciation and amortization through the announced
shutdown date;
- Terminating capital investment projects
required for long-term operation of TMI; and
- Canceling 2019 fuel purchases and
outage planning, impacting about 1,500 outage workers.
Absent policy reforms, the loss of Pennsylvania nuclear plants
would increase air pollution, compromise the resiliency of the
electric grid, raise energy prices for consumers, eliminate
thousands of good-paying local jobs and weaken the state’s
economy.
Despite producing 93 percent of the Commonwealth’s
emissions-free electricity and avoiding 37 million tons of carbon
emissions — the equivalent of keeping 10 million cars off the road
every year — nuclear power is not included in the state’s
Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS). Yet 16 clean power
sources including solar, wind and hydro energy are supported by
this state energy policy.
Amending the AEPS is one of many potential solutions to preserve
Pennsylvania’s nuclear plants. Other options include establishing a
zero emissions credit program, similar to the approach being
implemented in Illinois and New York. Exelon is committed to
working with its stakeholders to find the best solution for
Pennsylvania — one that will maintain nuclear energy’s $2 billion
annual contribution to the state’s economy and its approximately
16,000 direct and indirect Pennsylvania jobs.
TMI directly employs 675 workers and contracts another 1,500
local union workers for refueling outages. The station provides
more than $1 million in state property taxes and more than $300,000
in local community giving each year.
Exelon’s highly trained employees will continue to operate the
plant at world-class levels of excellence, with staff transitions
expected within six months of the plant’s final shut down.
Exelon Corporation (NYSE:EXC) is a Fortune 100 energy company
with the largest number of utility customers in the U.S. Exelon
does business in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Canada and
had 2016 revenue of $31.4 billion. Exelon’s six utilities deliver
electricity and natural gas to approximately 10 million customers
in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania through its Atlantic City Electric, BGE,
ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco subsidiaries. Exelon is one
of the largest competitive U.S. power generators, with more than
33,300 megawatts of nuclear, gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric
generating capacity comprising one of the nation’s cleanest and
lowest-cost power generation fleets. The company’s Constellation
business unit provides energy products and services to
approximately 2.2 million residential, public sector and business
customers, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 100.
Follow Exelon on Twitter @Exelon.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170530005423/en/
Exelon CorporationPaul Adams, 410-470-4167Corporate
Communicationspaul.adams@constellation.com
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