CLEVELAND, Ohio -- FirstEnergy says it is getting out of the nuclear power business within the next three years.

The company's power plant subsidiaries FirstEnergy Solutions and the FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. late Wednesday informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and regional grid manager PJM Interconnection that it will close its nuclear power plants within three years.

The companies plan to close the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo in 2020, and both the Perry nuclear plant in Lake County as well as the two-reactor Beaver Valley nuclear plant near Pittsburgh in 2021.

The companies announced the decision well after the close of business, but made no mention of filing for bankruptcy.

Closing the nuclear plants years from today does nothing to alleviate the heavy debt FirstEnergy Solutions has amassed -- more than $2.8 billion to creditors and another $1.7 billion to the parent company FirstEnergy Corp.

FirstEnergy Solutions has a $100 million debt payment due in the first week of April, a deadline that has prompted wide speculation that it would seek restructuring before then.

Wednesday's announcement does include an obvious hint that the companies are still looking for a way to avoid an immediate bankruptcy if it can secure extra funding for its nuclear plants from Ohio and Pennsylvania. So far, lawmakers have ignored FirstEnergy's pleas for special nuclear subsidies.

"We call on elected officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania to consider policy solutions that would recognize the importance of these facilities to the employees and local economies in which they operate, and the unique role they play in providing reliable, zero-emission electric power for consumers in both states," said Don Moul, president of FES Generation Co. and chief nuclear officer, in a statement accompanying the announcement of future shutdowns.

"We stand ready to roll-up our sleeves and work with policy makers to find solutions that will make it feasible to continue to operate these plants in the future," Moul said.

With a total generating capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts, the three power plants in 2017 generated about two-thirds of the electricity that the companies produced. They also contributed more than $540 million in local taxes and provided jobs for about 2,300 people.

Lake County Commission Jerry Cirino, who has been campaigning for months to keep the Perry nuclear plant open, reminded his Facebook followers moments after the announcement that "this is NOT the time for panic."

Adding that he expects FirstEnergy to file for bankruptcy protection Friday, Cirino stressed that "neither of these two events means that the plant will close in the short term. We are just moving into the next phase of dealing with the bankruptcy court who will determine what to do with the assets of the Perry facility," he wrote.

"I am hopeful that, with these events behind us, we will be able to drive for a solution that will involve the feds, PJM. FERC and a brand new governor who actually cares about our community," Cirino said.

PJM, which which is responsible for the stability of high-voltage power flows in Ohio, 12 other states and the District of Columbia, has a lot to say about when a power plant can close. Reliability is PJM's issue.

"Plant closures are subject to review and we have a process for analyzing reliability," said Susan Buehler, PJM spokeswoman.

She added that PJM has been considering changes in how real-time competitive prices are developed in order to recognize the value of large, "inflexible" power plants that do not typically ramp up and down to meet demand. For the past 20 years, PJM has focused on grid reliability at the lowest reasonable cost.

An NRC spokeswoman said the company orally notified the agency late Wednesday and that the company has 30 days to send the NRC a written notification.

FirstEnergy first mentioned closing its Ohio power plants, including its nuclear plants, as early as 2014 during arguments in a rate case before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

The company had proposed circumventing federally created competitive wholesale markets by requiring the Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison to buy all of the power generated by its unregulated FirstEnergy Solutions power plants for 15 years, at whatever it cost.

The plan was for the three delivery companies to immediately sell the power into wholesale markets and have customers make up the difference in prices.

During months of hearings, the company argued that its uncompetitive old coal and nuclear plants would become competitive once the price of natural gas increased. And at that point, customers would see credits on their monthly bills, they argued.

Opponents cited federal predictions that natural gas would stay cheap for decades and customers would just keep on paying higher rates.

The PUCO initially approved a modification of the proposed "power purchase agreements," only to see federal regulators step in and demand to review the plan's impact on federally controlled wholesale markets. FirstEnergy demurred.

In July 2015, a year before the rate case at the PUCO concluded, Charles Jones, CEO of FirstEnergy, said he favored Ohio returning to traditional regulation in order to save the old power plants.

"I'd do it in a heartbeat," he told the Plain Dealer's editorial board, adding that though the company's future was on the line, it had not been talking to lawmakers about re-regulating Ohio and pushing out competitors.

In 2016 the company began circulating a pamphlet among Ohio lawmakers proposing its nuclear plants get extra funding from customers -- $300 million extra annually -- because they don't produce any carbon dioxide. The "zero emission credits" were modeled on similar programs in Illinois and New York for certain nuclear plants.

Legislation creating the "ZECs" for FirstEnergy's plants has languished in House and Senate committees for more than a year. And Jones has said he thought bankruptcy would be unavoidable, though he has stressed such a decision would be up to FirstEnergy Solutions, and not the parent company.