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This article first published June 29, 2007.

Exelon Corp. may not be a household name in Texas like CPL, TXU or AEP, but it’s certainly well known among the nation’s power circles.

“At the time it was created – in fact it’s still true today – it was the largest capital utility in the nation,” said Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for Exelon.

According to the company Web site, Exelon Corp. distributes electricity to about 5.4 million customers in Illinois and Pennsylvania and natural gas to about 480,000 customers in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Exelon Nuclear, one of the corporation’s divisions, employs about 7,500 people and operates 10 nuclear plants in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. If the company decides to build in Matagorda or Victoria counties, it would be its first nuclear plant in Texas.

“No matter what county they eventually end up in, it will be a positive for the local community,” said Adrian Heymer with the Nuclear Energy Institute.

“Although they own the largest number of plants, they weren’t the first to jump into the new plant arena,” he said. “They have taken a measured step in saying they think that now the time is right and asking, ‘Where can we build a new nuclear plant?’”

Heymer also said the company has a good reputation from both an operational and safety perspective. He said an incident where tritium leaked at the Braidwood Generating Station in Illinois shows just how transparent and honest the company is.

“They took action to keep the local community informed, although the level was well below the Nuclear Regulatory Commission limit,” he said. “They went out into the community and did additional drilling to ensure that wells were not being contaminated to put the public’s mind to rest. So they sort of went the extra mile to assure the public and to interact with the local community on this activity.”

Exelon was formed in 2000 by the merger of two large utility holding companies.

“What it did was combine two independent nuclear operations into one large nuclear operation, which now is the largest nuclear operation in America,” Nesbit said. He also said the company is considering its first venture into the nuclear plant market in Texas because it seems like a great market with a promising future.

“Texas needs a lot of power over the next 25 years,” Nesbit said. “You’re going to be building a ton of power plants of all kinds. You’re going to have to. There’s no choice.”

He said another draw was the unregulated market in Texas. “We don’t operate generating assets in regulated environments.”