Pacific Gas & Electric said Tuesday it is sticking to its schedule for closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant even as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
“Throughout the Chapter 11 process we will continue to operate our electric and natural gas business as usual. There are no specific plans to sell or close Diablo Canyon early,” James Noonan, a spokesman for the California utility, said by email.
In 2016, PG&E announced plans to retire Diablo Canyon’s two pressurized water reactors as their Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses expire in 2024 and 2025.
The filing Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California was driven by PG&E’s liabilities of $30 billion or more connected to wildfires in the state in 2017 and 2018. PG&E’s transition lines and other equipment have been blamed for many of the fires.
The Diablo Canyon decommissioning trust fund currently has $3.2 billion, with the utility seeking permission from the California Public Utilities Commission to increase rates to provide another $1.6 billion it says it will need to complete cleanup. The commission is expected to take 12 to 18 months to rule on that matter. Noonan wrote that the bankruptcy should not affect those efforts.
PG&E is also seeking permission from the court to enter an agreement for $5.5 billion in debtor-in-possession financing with J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, MUFG Union Bank and Wells Fargo, according to a company press release. “The DIP financing, when approved, will provide PG&E with necessary capital to ensure essential maintenance and continued investments in safety and reliability for the expected duration of the Chapter 11 cases.”
On March 31, 2018, Akron, Ohio-based nuclear power provider FirstEnergy Solutions and its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The filing, part of parent company FirstEnergy’s exit from the competitive generation business, came just day after announcement of plans to close three nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania by Oct. 31, 2021.
