Edison Mission Energy, an Edison International companyestablished Midwest Generation EME LLC to own and operate Illinoisfossil-fuel electric generating plants to be acquired fromCommonwealth Edison later this year. Midwest Generation EME alsowill operate a coal-fired power plant in Homer City, PA, which wasacquired earlier this year.

Georgia Ricci Nelson, formerly senior vice president, worldwideoperations for Edison Mission Energy, has been named president ofMidwest Generation EME. The new company will locate itsheadquarters in Chicago later this year. Nelson also has served assenior vice president of Southern California Edison, EdisonInternational’s electric utility subsidiary.

Midwest Generation EME plans to acquire seven coal- andgas-fired plants plus peaking units at an additional five sitesfrom Commonwealth Edison for about $5 billion, pending approval bystate and federal regulators. The acquisition includes Fisk andCrawford Stations in Chicago, Collins Station in Morris, PowertonStation in Pekin, Will County Station in Romeoville, Joliet Stationand Waukegan Station. The 12 facilities have a combined capacity of9,261 MW.

“The size of our investment in Illinois made it clear thatestablishing a new company here to oversee our expanding Midwestoperations is the right move at this time,” Nelson said.

Midwest Generation EME is in business exclusively to generatepower for the wholesale market. Under the terms of the plantacquisitions, Commonwealth Edison will retain rights to buy powergenerated by the Illinois plants over the next five years to helpthe utility provide a dependable flow of power to its customers.Midwest Generation EME anticipates acquiring the Illinois plants inthe fall. The sale must first be approved by the Illinois CommerceCommission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In March Edison Mission announced it would buy the fossil-fueledgenerating assets of Commonwealth Edison for about $5 billion (see Daily GPI March 24, 1999). Edison MissionEnergy has also committed to build 500 MW of gas-fired generatingcapacity in Chicago.

ComEd parent Unicom got about $1.76 billion over book value forthe plants combined. The sale enables Unicom to improve itsfinancial structure and redirect investments, said Unicom andCommonwealth Edison CEO John W. Rowe. The gain of about $1.7billion after taxes and satisfaction of sales-related obligationsis to be used to reduce the cost of ComEd’s nuclear-related assets,currently valued at more than $9 billion.

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