Funds to decommission the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant years from now may fall short of what?s needed, the Public Service Commission?s chairman said Wednesday, requiring a bigger commitment from Baltimore Gas and Electric ratepayers.
But BGE contends that the power plant decommissioning fund is fully funded, much of it from returns on investment of the money already in the fund. BGE claimed those returns exceed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?s inflation rates for decommissioning the plants.
PSC Chairman Steven Larsen wasn?t so sure.
“My concern is at some point there?s going to be a big bill to pay,” he said. “That at some point Constellation or BGE will say, ?It?s time [to close the plant], you owe us $5 billion.? ”
The issue was the centerpiece of an hours-long, often contentious hearing Wednesday between the PSC and representatives of BGE. The hearing was intended to allow BGE to respond to a report released by the PSC last month detailing itspreliminary findings on the impact of the 1999 deregulation of Maryland?s electricity market. Lawmakers last year directed the commission to revisit the settlement.
The PSC?s report concluded that deregulation had led to $1.15 billion in costs to ratepayers while saving them just $315.6 million. But a breakdown of costs and benefits released Wednesday by BGE concluded that customers had paid just $155 million but seen a benefit of $1.8 billion.
Prominent in the PSC?s report was the decommissioning of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, a liability that remained with ratepayers and that the 1999 PSC capped at $520 million in 1993 dollars, the last year in which the cost had been determined. But the PSC?s report claimed that liability was subject to inflation determined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The report concluded that the liability was $778 million at the time of deregulation, had grown to $920 million by 2006, and could be as much as $5 billion by 2036. Under the terms of the 1999 settlement, ratepayers? annual contribution was set at $18.6 million, a figure Larsen said might not be enough to cover the final decommissioning cost.
Deborah Jennings, a lawyer representing BGE, vigorously denied the commission?s claim and said the decommissioning fund had enough money in it and would have to be continually monitored.
“These assumptions change daily,” she said. “I think you have to look at it long term.”
The disagreement over funds for nuclear plant decommissioning was one among several complaints, “both substantive and procedural,” that Jennings said BGE had with the report. Among them were a lack of hearings and public input into the report?s creation; its tone, which Jennings described as one of “advocacy”; and omission and distortion of the settlement?s facts.
