Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions]. Our first question is coming from John Kiani from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
John Kiani - Deutsche Bank
John, I know you already made some comments on M&A with respect to succession planning in your opening remarks, but in the past I think you have highlighted certain regions that you may want more exposure to. Can you give us your latest thoughts on this please?
John W. Rowe - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sure, but they don't changed much. I mean... I think we learned our lesson in PJM East where [inaudible] being there as we can afford to be, that's also true in the Illinois area. There may be some attractive opportunities in PJM West, but that remains to be seen. Obviously, we're interested in parts of the areas to the south of PJM and interested in areas to the west. You all got your speculations as to who we're talking to. I’ve sat around at an EEI meeting not long ago and it was hard to identify anybody I haven't talked to at one time or the other.
A key thing from our point of view is we're always interested, we're always careful, and it's always about value. We just... we look at our model and we don't see anybody equally well positioned. So a deal really has to make sense on a whole lot of factors or we're just not going to do one and we're not going to identify? the surest way to make certain we couldn't do something would be to identify a preferred alternative in a call like this. There are lots of companies out there that makes sense under certain price conditions. There is no company that makes sense under any price condition, and so we will just go forward in our usual hard-boiled way. But I have never flinched on the proposition that this industry needs to consolidate. You take our estimated numbers for a two-unit nuclear project in Texas, they're about the same size as the total equity on our balance sheet. When you look at other companies, the challenge of building projects like that is even larger. So the need to have real scale to deal with the decisions of the future remains obvious. It's also something that one can only get in very careful negotiations. If it turns out that there is nothing available in the next several years, then what might work will be is either pick one of my colleagues from inside or do a search outside and find a successor to me when the time is right. It's not one of our... our constant attention is what can we do and will it bring real value to Exelon. I at my 24th anniversary on January 9 running utilities, I was about valuing year one and I am still about valuing year 25, and pretty soon I hope you believe me.
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