Nukes In A Post-Nuclear World: Going, Going, ... Gone

Updates

August 25, 2017: more on the Duke Energy decision to scrap the South Carolina nuclear energy project.

July 31, 2017: nuclear energy is dead in the US. The final nail in that coffin was the abrupt halt to any new work on the construction of nuclear reactors in South Carolina and Georgia.

May 30, 2017: Three Mile Island to close in 2019, Harrisburg, PA, although the announcement could simply be to put government regulators on notice.

Original Post 

Wow, this is incredible.

Over on the sidebar, I have something called the "Big Stories."

And over at "Big Stories," I have something called "Natural Gas and Coal in the Post-Nuclear World." I couldn't find a link for this to go to, so I simply linked a number of sites by country and state (that probably doesn't make sense but I doubt folks coming to read about the Bakken have read even this far, so it really doesn't matter, does it).

Whatever.

A reader sent me a most interesting article a couple of days ago. I was traveling and didn't have time to read the article or get back to the reader. It turns out to be a great article. Everyone (who had read this far, all three of you) needs to read this article.

Seldom do I hear such tough talk from a CEO (exception: Martha Stewart on her way to prison).

An excerpt from the article:

Facing deteriorating sentiment on Wall Street, Exelon Corp. CEO Christopher Crane today directly challenged analysts' views on his company and restated his confidence that the depressed wholesale power markets largely responsible for the Chicago-based utility giant's declining earnings will recover.

But, though Mr. Crane delivered it more pointedly than in the past, his message is one analysts have heard before, with no evidence afterward that the market fundamentals were changing. So this time Mr. Crane put a time limit on his patience: one year.

If wholesale power prices don't show signs of increasing by late next year, Exelon will begin shuttering power plants, he said on a call to discuss the company's third-quarter earnings, which surpassed analysts' expectations.

“We will shut down facilities that we do not see a path to long-term sustainable profitability,” Mr. Crane pledged.

Among the nuclear power plants regarded as the most vulnerable in that scenario is Exelon's Clinton facility, one of five it runs in Illinois.

And this:

But in reiterating their long-held view that power prices will increase $2 to $4 per megawatt-hour and boost Exelon's profits from its industry-leading nuclear fleet, Mr. Crane and other company executives didn't offer much new to back their opinion. “I sound like a broken record when I do this,” said Kenneth Cornew, CEO of Exelon's power-generation unit.

He then laid out Exelon's case that the retirement of old coal-fired power plants will lead to price increases over the next few years. Asked what effect the recent news that Princeton, N.J.-based power generation company NRG Energy Inc. would buy four coal-fired power stations in Illinois out of bankruptcy had on Exelon's outlook, Exelon Senior Vice President Joseph Nigro said, “We still see that $2 to $4 of upside in the market.”

While much of Exelon's stock performance is predicated on future natural gas prices, which correlate strongly with wholesale power prices, its current performance exceeded expectations. Its third-quarter operating earnings of $667 million, or 78 cents per share, easily beat consensus analyst estimates and also topped the 77 cents per share posted in the same quarter a year before.

Earnings at Exelon's Commonwealth Edison Co. were responsible for much of the upside surprise. ComEd generated operating earnings of $127 million, or 19 percent of Exelon's total, up 41 percent from $90 million during the same period last year, when ComEd accounted for 14 percent of Exelon's earnings.

The primary reason: higher revenues at ComEd thanks to the 2011 formula rate law enacted in Illinois over Gov. Pat Quinn's veto, according to Exelon's earnings release.

And much, much more at the link.

I can't think the reader enough for sending me this article. This will be the post linked to one of the "Big Stories" at the sidebar at the right.

Wow, I love my readers. In a manly sort of way, as they say in Dallas.