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FirstEnergy, Exelon identify nuclear plants that failed to clear PJM auction

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FirstEnergy, Exelon identify nuclear plants that failed to clear PJM auction

Three nuclear plants that FirstEnergy Corp. has said it will retire were among generating units that did not clear the PJM Interconnection's 2021/2022 capacity auction.

Meanwhile, independent power producers NRG Energy Inc. and Vistra Energy Corp. appeared to be winners in the auction, results of which were reported May 23. Prices came in at a minimum of $140/MW-day and higher in several of PJM's internal delivery regions.

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Vistra, which in April closed its purchase of merchant generator Dynegy Inc., cleared a total of 9,779 MW of capacity in the auction at an average price of $156.47/MW-day. A total of 6,435 MW of capacity cleared in the "rest-of-RTO" region. Another 2,450 MW cleared in the ComEd zone in northern Illinois, and the remaining 894 MW of cleared capacity was split between two other regions.

NRG Energy cleared a total of 4,740 MW at an average price of $189.81/MW-day. That includes 3,995 MW in the ComEd zone, which includes its 1,538-MW Powerton coal plant, which also burns natural gas, and the 1,326-MW natural gas-fired Joliet 29 station in Illinois, as well as the 510-MW Will County coal plant, 790-MW Waukegan plant, which burns a mix of oil and coal, and the 172-MW Fisk plant.

NRG's GenOn Energy Inc. affiliate cleared another 8,494 MW at an average price of $145.15/MW-day, with nearly half of that total in the PEPCO region. Its largest facilities there, both in Maryland, are the Chalk Point and Morgantown plants.

Troubled nuclear plants do not clear

FirstEnergy confirmed May 24 that its Perry and Davis-Besse plants in northern Ohio and Beaver Valley plant in western Pennsylvania did not clear. Its subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions Corp. said in late March that it plans to retire all three plants by 2021.

Overall, PJM reported that 10,643 MW of nuclear capacity in the region offered into the auction did not clear.

"This situation is a call to action for policymakers in Ohio and Pennsylvania to take effective action to support these important baseload nuclear power plants that can and should operate for many years into the future," FirstEnergy Solutions President Don Moul said in a statement. He pointed to other PJM states such as New Jersey, which May 23 adopted legislation to enable a zero-emission credit program to support nuclear plants. "FES is committed to working with policymakers to find creative solutions to make this happen in Ohio and Pennsylvania as well," Moul added. FirstEnergy has also petitioned the U.S. Department of Energy to issue an emergency order that keeps its Beaver Valley, Perry and Davis-Besse plants operating.

Out of nine plants that FirstEnergy bid into the auction, only two cleared and both sell into the American Transmission Systems Inc., or ATSI, zone, largely in northern Ohio. They included the 361-MW dual-fueled West Lorain plant in Ohio and 1,233 MW from three bituminous coal units at W.H. Sammis. Among the FirstEnergy plants that did not clear was its 1,785 MW Bruce Mansfield coal plant.

Exelon Corp. reported that a total of 12,775 MW that did clear the auction, including 9,950 MW of nuclear capacity.

The uncleared plants included three "economically challenged" stations — Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Dresden, and a portion of the Byron Generating Station in Illinois. The Three Mile Island plant, which sells into PJM's "rest-of-RTO" region, is slated to close in October 2019 given that the plant has not been profitable for six years, Exelon said. But its 1,805-MW Dresden plant and roughly 2,300-MW Byron station, which are in the ComEd zone, are not at risk of early retirement because both have long-term capacity obligations, Exelon said. Dresden is contracted to sell its capacity through May 2021 and Byron is similarly contracted to sell capacity through May 2022.

Exelon's Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey did not participate in the auction, as it is scheduled to be retired this October.

The 2018 auction committed plants to serve in the 2021/2022 delivery year running from June 1, 2021 to May 31, 2022.