Constellation profits boosted with EDF venture
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - Constellation Energy Group Incorporated recently reported fourth-quarter and full-year results for the 2009 fiscal year. The company posted an annual net income of $4.5 billion, compared to a $1.3 billion loss in fiscal year 2008.
Year-over-year comparisons are difficult, as the company experienced several structural and financial changes in 2009. Constellation had originally planned a merger with MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company in 2009, but subsequently cancelled the merger (and paid a $175 million termination fee) in order to form a joint venture with EDF Development Incorporated , a wholly owned subsidiary of Electricite de France SA (EDF) The deal closed in November, and Constellation sold 49.99% of its nuclear fleet to EDF for $4.5 billion, raising the company's earnings for the fiscal year.
The joint venture, known as Constellation Energy Nuclear Group LLC, has three nuclear power facilities in its fleet: the 1,750-megawatt (MW) Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby, Maryland; the 1,758-MW Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Lycoming, New York; and the 581-MW R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in Ontario, New York, which Constellation purchased in 2004.
Including a planned $9 billion, 1,600-MW unit addition at the Calvert Cliffs facility, Industrial Info is currently tracking more than $10 billion of active projects of Constellation Energy Group. The Calvert Cliffs Unit 3 addition project is one of 19 nuclear projects that applied for a portion of $18.5 billion in federal loan guarantees. Earlier this month, $8.8 billion in loan guarantees was provided to the Southern Company for construction of units 3 and 4 of the company's Vogtle nuclear power station.
"The DOE loan guarantee remains one of the critical components in funding this investment, and we are hopeful that a positive decision will be forthcoming," said President and CEO Mayo Shattuck in a conference call regarding the earnings.
Set to kick off next month is the estimated $50 million uprating project of the Unit 2 reactor at the company's Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Lycoming, New York. The multi-phase project involves equipment replacement and overhaul, as well as control system upgrades, and will add 158 MW to the unit. The $50 million project is set to begin in March and will take about two years to complete.
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TORONTO - A manufacturer of steel rail cars is pursuing an appeal after its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a major Ontario electricity fee was struck down earlier this year.
Lawyers for Hamilton, Ont.-based National Steel Car Ltd. filed a notice of appeal in July after Ontario Superior Court Justice Wendy Matheson ruled in June that an electricity fee, known as the global adjustment, was a regulatory charge, and not an unconstitutional tax used to finance policy goals, as National Steel Car alleges.
The company, the decision noted, began its legal crusade last year after seeing its electricity bills had “increased dramatically”…
