* Exelon press release…

Exelon Corp. (Nasdaq: EXC) today announced its Board of Directors has approved a plan to separate Exelon Utilities (RemainCo), comprised of the company’s six regulated electric and gas utilities, and Exelon Generation (SpinCo), its competitive power generation and customer-facing energy businesses into two publicly traded companies with the resources necessary to best serve customers and sustain long-term investment and operating excellence. The separation gives each company the financial and strategic independence to focus on its specific customer needs, while executing its core business strategy. […]

SpinCo will operate the nation’s largest fleet of carbon-free nuclear power plants, which produced 150 million megawatt hours of electricity last year – enough to power 13.6 million homes and avoid more than 106 million metric tons of carbon emissions. The company also operates approximately 12,000 megawatts of hydroelectric, wind, solar, natural gas and oil generation assets, which provide a mix of baseload, intermediate and peak power generation. These characteristics make SpinCo uniquely positioned to advance the nation’s clean energy strategy and priorities.

To maintain the generation fleet’s legacy of safety, operational excellence and financial stewardship, the company will retire uneconomic assets that negatively affect its ability to provide a reliable source of clean power to tens of millions of American homes and businesses.

So, the fight over closing Illinois nuke plants will continue.

* Crain’s…

Approvals are needed from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and New York’s utility regulators. Illinois, where Exelon is based, will have no official say.

Exelon has faced calls from consumer advocates and others for years that it ought to split its regulated utilities like Commonwealth Edison from its unregulated power plants like the nuclear stations in Illinois.

…Adding… Illinois PIRG Director Abe Scarr…

Exelon’s ownership of ComEd has created long-standing conflicts of interests and Illinois consumers have suffered as a result.. Separating Exelon’s generation assets from its regulated utilities is good news for ComEd’s customers and the public. At the same time, Illinois policymakers should recognize that conflicts persist and take action to address them.

Every year, Exelon bills hundreds of millions of dollars of services to ComEd, a subsidiary it controls, a subsidiary which can fully recover those costs from its captured customers. Illinois policy has so far failed to adequately recognize, much less mitigate, the numerous potential conflicts inherent in this relationship.

The Illinois General Assembly has the opportunity this spring to begin undoing the policy harms of the ComEd bribery scandal. That means winning restitution for ComEd customers, restoring effective utility regulation by ending automatic rate hikes through formula rates, and reforming utility political influence by no longer allowing utilities to charge their customers for charitable contributions. Addressing the conflicts of interest that persist beyond an Exelon breakup should remain on the General Assembly’s agenda.