WASHINGTON, D.C.—This afternoon the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its order responding to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking related to resilience from the U.S. Department of Energy. Following is comment from Maria Korsnick, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute.
“We are disappointed that FERC did not take affirmative action that would preserve our nation’s nuclear plants. America’s nuclear fleet must remain a strategic asset contributing to energy security, resilience, reliability, economic growth and environmental protection. The status quo, in which markets recognize only short-term price signals and ignore the essential role of nuclear generation, will lead to more premature shutdowns of well-run nuclear facilities. Once closed, these facilities are shuttered forever.
“We applaud the Secretary’s effort to place this issue on the national agenda. To that end, FERC’s order concluded that resiliency of generation ‘remains an important issue that warrants the Commission’s continued attention,’ and that its endorsement of electricity markets ‘does not conflict with its oversight of reliability.’ The Commission has opened a new proceeding ‘to specifically evaluate the resilience of the bulk power system in the regions operated by regional transmission organizations (RTO) and independent system operators (ISO).’
“We are committed to working with FERC, the Department of Energy and other federal and state policymakers to ensure that America’s nuclear fleet continues to deliver electricity reliably and affordably. We believe the direction to the RTOs/ISOs to ‘take a proactive stance on addressing and ensuring resilience’ must lead to prompt and meaningful action, including on issues such as price formation.”