Dive Brief:
- Dynegy CEO Bob Flexon said his company is definitively opposed to re-regulating Ohio power markets, telling the Columbus Business First that open markets allow more efficient generators to thrive.
- Dynegy, which purchased Duke's generating assets in a $2.8 billion deal that gave it an Ohio footprint, describes itself as "the little guy" in the debate over power rates in the state.
- FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones has said he supports a return to regulated rates, while American Electric Power has floated its own proposals to guarantee returns from ailing coal facilities.
Dive Insight:
It's unusual for a company capable of a $2.8 billion acquisition to describe themselves as "the little guy," but according to Dynegy CEO Flexon his company is being out-spent in the debate over what to do about Ohio's power rates.
“Coal plants and nuclear plants in this market are losers,” Flexon told Columbus Business First. “For some reason they want to keep them. In order to keep them, they need them regulated because they can’t compete.”
FirstEnergy and AEP have both proposed ratepayers pay more for coal and nuclear facilities that are no longer competitive against cheaper, more efficient gas facilities. FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones has said he would support a return to regulated rates, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "I am trying to save a company."
Dynegy has coal facilities in Ohio as well, but told Columbus Business First they are also not making any money and the company continues to operate them at break even.
In the battle over what to do about power rates, Flexon said his company is "absolutely outmanned, outgunned and outspent by FirstEnergy and AEP. So we’re the little guy on the corner trying to tackle these two giant utilities."
That said, Dynegy stands to profit if the other utilities shutter their facilities. Analysts shave speculated that Ohio's reticence to have ratepayers support AEP's coal facilities could lead the company to sell them off -- and Dynegy has been named as a potential buyer.
