The headline from the sleaziest of industries reads “UTILITY LEADERS, NUCLEAR OWNERS, FERC COMMISSIONER PUBLICLY REBUT EXELON’S ANTI-PTC CAMPAIGN”
The nuclear owners quoted prominently include Nextera.
The company being attacked is a generator holding a number of nuclear assets, with generation selling, in many cases, in markets at market rates.
Nextera is a label of Florida Power and Light (FPL): FPL operates in regulated environments, where they get a guaranteed return on investments through regulated rates. Where that is not the case, they generally secure power purchase agreements to avoid exposure to market rates.
Nextera itself lists 3 nuclear operations:
Duane Arnold somehow secured a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) – in the heart of wind country only a year ago.
Point Beach has a PPA to 2030 (unit 1) and 2033 (unit 2)
Seabrook Station has a small PPA to the end of 2034, but may sell into the lucrative New England market
Nextera has little to no exposure to merchant plant nuclear operations near the wind corridor, where the frequent winds have gutted market pricing.
Nextera is reportedly both the main beneficiary of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the largest spender on lobbying for the PTC
Other companies the article cites in feigning other nuclear operators generally don’t share Exelon’s distain of the PTC include:
- Xcel has little nuclear; a couple of units in Minnesota, where it fights for higher regulated pricing (they do not appear exposed to market rates)
- Edison Mission Energy is emerging from bankruptcy and sale (to NRG) – its value is primarily as a wind generator/recipient of PTC spending.
If you want to read something substantive on the dangers of gutting market pricing with subsidized variable intermittent supply (driven by the PTC), try this from American Electric Power’s Chairman: