For months, Exelon Corp. has been signaling that it will ask for state legislation next year to provide hundreds of millions of additional dollars to its fleet of Illinois nuclear plants, which the company says are struggling financially.
There’s one thing the power company isn’t saying: whether the atomic energy plants as a whole make money or not. A Crain’s analysis of Exelon’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings suggests the Illinois nukes as a group remain profitable, even as revenue has fallen sharply in the past few years. Profit clearly has eroded, however.
The analysis—coupled with Exelon’s stance that it won’t seek state bailouts for individual plants but instead a “market solution” that benefits all of its nukes in Illinois, even those making money—raises questions about whether the state effectively will be asked to compel ratepayers to subsidize a profitable enterprise.
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