112 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
112 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
Dane Sabo
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NUCE 2122 - Summer 2025
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# *Instructions:*
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Read and analyze the internet details associated with Constellation Energy and Dominion Energy. They are the two most significant companies in the US.
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For each company prepare the following analysis:
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- What are their main businesses/ separate companies
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- What is the total installed generation in MWE owned or operated
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by each company
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- What are the types and MWE of power plants they own or operate.
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- Which of their plants are owned and operated as merchant plants and which are regulated
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- What does their strategic plan say
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- What are the major risks or challenges that they face in the next
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10 years
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*Send the completed summary to `chris67ta@gmail.com`*
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# *Submission*:
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## Constellation Energy
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### What are their main businesses and subsidiaries?
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Constellation Energy is a major energy producer in the United States, with 32,400 MW of generation capacity. Constellation Energy proudly claims that they are the #1 producer of carbon-free energy in the United States, producing 10% of the nation's carbon-free capacity. Constellation Energy is an extremely large producer of nuclear power, producing more nuclear capacity than 'all other competitive generators combined', according to their 2024 investor presentation (22.1 GWs!).
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Constellation's main business (pre-Calpine merger), has been located in the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) Interconnection (69%), with most other generation occurring in the ERCOT and NYISO regions (9% total). Following their acquisition of Calpine, Constellation Energy has a more rounded service area, producing 49% of its total capacity in PJM, 23% in ERCOT, 10% in CAISO, 8% in NYISO, with a final 10% distributed in other locations.
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### What is the total installed generation in MWE owned or operated?
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Constellation has a total of 32,400 megawatts of capacity.
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### What are the types and MWE of power plants they own or operate?
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According to Constellations Investor website, the breakdown of their fleet is
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as follows:
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| Plant Type | Capacity (%) | Capacity (MW) |
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| ------------------- | ------------ | ------------- |
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| Nuclear | 60 | 19,440 |
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| Natural Gas | 20 | 6,480 |
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| Natural Gas and Oil | 6 | 1,944 |
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| Hydroelectric | 5 | 1,620 |
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| Oil | ~4 | 1,296 |
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| Wind | ~1 | ~324 |
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| Solar | ~1 | ~324 |
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### Which of their plants are owned and operated as merchant plants and which are regulated?
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![[Pasted image 20250604114337.png]]
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According to the location of Constellation's generating plants, most of their
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plants are located in merchant areas. All of Constellation Energy's nuclear power plants are in deregulated (merchant) markets. They have several wind facilities in regulated locations, while owning one gas plant in a regulated state (Alabama).
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### What does their strategic plan say?
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Constellation's strageic plan is to continue to build towards a carbon-free future--at least that is what it says on their website. Their actions, however, show a possibly different way forward following the acquisition of Calpine, the United States's largest power generator from natural gas
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### What are the major risks or challenges they face in the next 10 years?
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In my opinion, Constellation's biggest risk is they do not have any current plant
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construction, but expect energy demand to increase dramatically. They are in
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are in great position to capitalize on increased energy demands from the
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development of AI, but really only through increased prices. Most of their
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capacity is located in merchant markets which is great for their profitability in
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a high demand market, but if they want to stay focused on nuclear they have
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to have started building yesterday.
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## Dominion Energy
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### What are their main businesses and subsidiaries?
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Dominion Energy operates its business through three main companies:
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Dominion Energy Virginia, Dominion Energy South Carolina, and Contracted
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Energy. Dominion Energy's main business is in wholesale energy, but Dominion
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makes a significant amount of money by doing natural gas distribution,
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transmission, and storage.
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### What is the total installed generation in MWE owned or operated?
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Dominion Energy's total power generation is on the order of 27,000 MW.
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### What are the types and MWE of power plants they own or operate?
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| Plant Type | Capacity (%) | Capacity (MW) |
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| ----------------------------- | ------------ | ------------- |
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| Natural Gas | 48 | 12,960 |
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| Nuclear | 23 | 6,210 |
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| Coal | 18 | 4,860 |
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| Hydro and other<br>Renewables | 11 | 2,970 |
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### Which of their plants are owned and operated as merchant plants and which are regulated?
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Dominion Energy operates 4 nuclear power plants. Millstone is in a merchant
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market (CT), North Anna and Surry are *likely* in a merchant market (VA), while
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V.C. Summer is located in a regulated market (SC).
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Dominion Energy owns several natural gas power plants, of which all but one
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are located in Virginia. As a result, these plants are likely merchant plants. One
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plant, the Rosemary power plant, is located in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.
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This plant is a regulated plant.
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Dominion operates several coal power plants, all located in Virginia and likely
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merchant plants.
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Dominion has a small number of renewable plants, which are half located in
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Virginia (merchant), while half are located in North Carolina and South
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Carolina (regulated).
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### What does their strategic plan say?
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Dominion Energy's Integrated Resource Plan says that their primary goal
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is to increase energy production in their service area with an anticipation
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of completion of their offshore wind farm. They anticipate that energy
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consumption will increase in the near-term, while importing power from
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other providers in the PJM interconnection will become prohibitively
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expensive
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### What are the major risks or challenges they face in the next 10 years?
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Dominion's biggest challenges are likely the expected scarcity of power on
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the PJM interconnect if generation does not greatly increase. With the AI boom
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looking to drastically change power consumption, those without large power
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projects may end up behind the ball and have to purchase power from other
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areas on the interconnect. This can quickly become very expensive, and with
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operating in some regulated areas, Dominion might have some trouble in
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dealing with the state to negotiate appropriate rates if there is a sharp
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increase in cost. |