Electricity Committee

Nuclear Power Plant Closures

DOE presentation on plant closures, economic pressures. Presented federal policy options, without necessarily advocating for any of them. Included: market rewards, tax and financing benefits, reducing costs of regulatory compliance, and reducing cost of aging.

PJM speaking about the impacts of Polar Vortex and policy adoptions. PJM created a penalty to be placed on units that don’t run during high-risk periods, which would be unlikely to be placed on a nuclear unit. However, that’s still not actively encouraging nuclear.

Also discussion of the 111(d) implications for nuclear: a price on carbon creates cost for other units, increasing the competitive stance of nuclear. PJM emphasizes that it’s remaining fuel-agnostic, and (ediitorializing) isn’t doing anything particularly active to increase nuclear’s standing.

NEI posits that the market doesn’t value nuclear’s attributes, and therefore the resource is threatened. LCOE costs for nuclear are, according to NEI’s numbers, about half that of gas and wind.