NEI Nuclear Notes

Map of PJM Interconnect Over the past few months we've been writing a lot about how flaws in merchant electric markets have been placing significant economic stress on nuclear plants operating in those areas. The latest piece of news on that topic came out late last month when PJM revealed the results of its 2014 Capacity Market Auction - one where three of Exelon's nuclear plants failed to "clear" the bidding . To help provide some clarity on exactly what's going on, we sat down for a Q&A with Joseph Dominguez , a senior vice president at Exelon to ask some questions about what it means for those three plants and the future of the electric grid. NEI : Exelon has said that Quad Cities and Byron in Illinois and Oyster Creek in New Jersey did not clear the PJM capacity auction. Why not? Dominguez : These auction results reveal that the market does not sufficiently recognize the significant value that nuclear plants provide in terms of reliability a...