PJM: FirstEnergy’s Ohio nukes not necessary to maintain grid reliability
Glazer told Crain’s that there may be reasons to save Ohio’s nuclear fleets, but reliability isn’t one of them.
“The lights aren’t going to go out,” he said last week. “There’s not a reliability problem. If you want to save them because of their jobs, because of economic development reasons or for tax revenue, that’s outside of our bailiwick.”
Ohio lawmakers are considering legislation create a Zero Emission Nuclear Resource (ZEN) program to keep the plants running. While debate on the measure has been suspended for now, there may be a better chance for passage this fall. But FirstEnergy officials say that may not be soon enough.
“Is the fall soon enough? I don’t know,” Jones said last month. “We are working through a lot of issues right now that are going to determine the future of our company and the future of our ownership of competitive generation.”
Ohio is not the first state where policymakers have faced this issue. New York and Illinois have zero energy credit programs in place to keep nuclear plants running — though both efforts are being contested — and similar programs are under consideration in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey.
