ML20149E822

Notice of License Amend Requests Proposed Merger of Toledo Edison Co & Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co Antitrust Determination

ML20149E822
Person / Time
Site:	Davis Besse, Perry
Issue date:	08/02/1994
From:	Gody A Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
To:
Shared Package
ML20149E819	List: ML20149E816 ML20149E822
References
A, NUDOCS 9408080101
Download: ML20149E822 (3)

Text

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y 7590-01 4

VflTED STATES NVCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION j

CENTERIOR ENERGY. ET AL.

DOCKET NOS. 50-346 AND 50-440 NOTICE OF LICENSE AMENDMENT RE0 VESTS PROPOSED MERGER OF TOLEDO EDIS0N COMPANY AND CLEVELAND ELECTRIC ILLVMINATING COMPANY ANTITRUST DETERMINATION Pursuant to two separate license amendment requests from licensee Centerior Energy (Centerior) dated June 2, 1994 and June 6, 1994, the staff hereby notices the request by Centerior to amend the Perry Nuclear Power Plant (Perry) and Dsvis-Besse Nuclear Power Sta+1on (Davis-Besse) operating licenses to reflect a new owner-operator of Perry and Davis-Besse.

The new owner-operator, temporarily named "NEWC0" by Centerior, will result from the proposed merger between the Toledo Edison Company (TE) and the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI) -- both existing licensees and owners of the Perry and Davis-Besse facilities.

The staff has interpreted the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended and the Commission's regulations, to require an antitrust review of an owner or operator prior to the preposed new owner taking possession of the facility or prior to the proposed new operator assuming responsibility for operating tne facility in question. Where the ncs operator is a non-owner, the staff has devei ped, with the Commission's approval, an antitrust license condition that 9400000101 940002

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prohibits the new operator from marketing or brokering power or energy from the facility.

(This type of license condition would not apply in the instant case because NEWC0 will be both an owner and an operator of Perry and Davis-

)

Besse.) The intent of the staff in developing the non-owner operator license condition is to forego the need for an extended review of the operator's competitive practices and any accompanying analysis of how any practices impact or could impact the electric bulk power services market.

By agreeing not to be involved in the facility's marketing or brokering of bulk power services, the staff believes the new non-owner operator wil'. not possess enough market power to significantly impact the market.

The instant amendment requests involve two licensees, TE and CEI, that have uncergone antitrust reviews by the staff at the construction permit and operating license stages of the licensing process. The construction permit antitrust review in the combined Ferry / Davis-Besse proceeding resulted in j

extensive antitrust license conditions obligating TE and CEI to cease certain anticompetitive practices and make available certain bulk power services to

, mr entities in the affected bulk power services market. This review analyzed the practices of the power pooling group known as CAPCO, i.e.,

Central Area Power Coordination Group, as a whole and also the practices of the five individual utility operating companies, including TE and CEI, that made up CAPCO. The staff believes the construction permit antitrust review and the operating license review, which found no significant antitrust l

changes since the previous review, adequately defined the problems associated with TE's and CEl's competitive practices and addressed these problems during l

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the review process.

The license conditions that evolved from the Commission's antitrust review process are extensive and procompetitive.

The licensee has agreed that the new owner-operator will be bound by the existing antitrust license conditions now binding TE and CEI -- by doing so, the staff believes that there is no need to conduct another antitrust review as a result of the proposed merger nor is there any nead to seek public comment on the proposed merger.

For further details with respect to this action, see the applications for amendment dated June 2, 1994 (Perry) and June 6, 1994 (Davis-Besse), which are available for public inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room, located at the Gelman Building, 2120 L Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

20555 and at the Local Public Document Rooms: for Perry, at the Perry Public Library, 3753 Main Street, Perry, Ohio 44081; for Davis-Besse, at the University of Toledo Library, Documents Department, 2801 Bancroft Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43606.

Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of August, 1994 FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

, C ie ony Regulatory Cri[eri, Branch Inspecti i an Program na ement, Policy DeVel ment and Ana is Staff Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation L

.