Exelon, which owns the northern Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison, has announced its acquisition of Illinois Power, a downstate utility that is currently owned by Dynegy. There are lots of interesting potential aspects of this acquisition. First is Exelon’s pressure on the Illinois Commerce Commission to follow an accelerated process of approving the rate increase that will enable the acquisition. Second is the effect that this acquisition will have on whether or not these two large utilities go with Midwest ISO or with PJM as their regional transmission organization (RTO).
I may have more to say on this …
Re Exelon story:
You mention that this acquisition might affect which ISO Com Ed and Illinios Power will join. I was operating under the assumption that Com Ed had opted to join PJM. Has anything changed lately? (I know Virginia regulators are trying to put the brakes on Dominion Power joining PJM, but I hadn’t heard about Com Ed)
Hi Barry! Yep, it’s still up in the air; ComEd has declared their intention to join PJM, but there’s been enough hue and cry raised that it’s by no means a done deal.
To the Editor, Larry Altenbaumer, The Illinois House and Kate Clements.
In response to various news article and the Guest commentary by Larry Altenbaumer
Wake up central Illinois! Unless you like to throw money away, you had better contact The Illinois House, and ask them not to vote for pending bill 2200 to assist Exelon In the purchase of Illinois Power / Dynegy. While you are at it, thank your Senators that intelligently voted no. While I was in grade school, Illinois Power sold the concept of ?CHEAP? nuclear power to Central Illinois. The mismanaged costs of finally getting Clinton built, and online prevented Illinois Power from ever being able to provide cheap electricity to Central Illinois, as debt management and operational costs of CPS keep increasing. In the mid 90?s IP shifted from a great history of service orientation, to one of a pure profit mission statement mentality. Jobs were cut and divisions consolidated to make it strong, and a leader in it?s industry. In 1999 the Illinova (yes remember Illinova) board again found a way to put more money in it?s pockets, and less into central Illinois residents. CPS (Clinton Power Station) was to be sold, and the officers would all make a few million on the side, if they could convince everyone that ownership by a Texas firm that specialized in speculation, and not operations was a good thing. As a ten year Illinois Power employee I repeately voiced my disagreement with the merger. I saw and predicted then, that IP would be chopped up and resold in three years. Dynegy also promised a better future and ?commitments? to keeping jobs. In 2000 I left Illinois Power, to manage the transfer of information technology from IP to Amergen. I have also worked as a contractor for Exelon at CPS. This has afforded me the opportunity to see how they work, and what is planned for the future in Central Illinois. Once again Chicago and corporate America is trying to profit on the passivity of the Midwest. Exelon will build more power plants at the CPS site. Nuclear if they can, gas turbine or others if they can?t. They need the capacity, and they do not have anyplace to build up north. Their expansion at CPS, coupled with the ownership of IP?s grid will provide them with very cheap power generation and distribution. Exelon is in the catbird seat purring away, It will profit which ever way the bill goes. Oh and if you think their commitments to jobs means anything, just ask all of the unemployed Exelon (Amergen) employees in the area. As for Dynegy I feel for my friends still working there in Decatur. They will lose their jobs either way. If the sale is killed all the jobs will be outsourced, and operations moved to Houston. If the deal goes thru, they will be let go in the name of efficiency, as those who desperately need a job will do their co-workers work, and their own, to show Exelon they are a loyal servant. Exelon has all the staff and engineers up north it needs to run IP?s customers down here. It will keep a token shell of a presence in Decatur. Finally we the residents of Central Illinois will get the joy of talking to someone a few hundred miles away about our power being out, or our power bill increasing (Remember it will cost you just a few cents more per day today, to allow us to save you money in the future.) jumping. Under what rock, and tied to what hidden incentives we the public are not aware of, there is supposedly broad support for this merger. I can imagine that the city of Decatur is just tickled to death, at the though of losing more jobs. Please do not reward Mr. Altenbaumer, or any other member of the IP/Dynegy board with another Christmas bonus at the expense of Illinois ratepayers, and IP employees. They made enough selling out IP the first time. If they had truly spent their time focusing on service to Central Illinois instead of their golden parachutes, they would not be in this mess. Dynegy should have to wait like everyone else, and do things proper for once. And when the time comes to sellout to Exelon (they will sell), this time divide up the profit delta and give it to all of the employees that will lose their jobs. If anyone has any facts to prove me wrong I am in the phonebook.
John Bloom
902 Frank Drive
Champaign Illinois
217-356-9863
P.S. This is probably to long to fit into the letters to the editor. Could I be a Guest Commentary? I really enjoyed working for IP and hated to leave. When Dynegy decided that they didn?t want Illinova Generating to survive the merger, (Illinova biggest and growing in the black money making assest.) It was obvious that all Dynegy wanted was the IP gas distribution fields so it could control gas pricing from Texas to Chicago. I couldn?t stay and work for people that could lie like that to so many people. Why don?t you run a story on what is, and isn?t being sold to Exelon. By the way while working for Exelon/Amergen It was my job to work on IT solutions to replace the need for the existing people. Exelon is an okay company, but strives to be very very efficient. That’s okay and I undestand, I have degree in Industrial Engineering. Just please don’t allow them to so easily paint these lovely merger scenarios that are not totally true.