The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday that it has made a conditional loan commitment of $4.2 billion to Vistra Corp. to finance nuclear uprates and modernization across the company’s nuclear fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Vistra announced in January that the company was pursuing a total of 433 MW of uprates at its Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear plants in Ohio and its Beaver Valley plant in Pennsylvania, in connection with a 2.6 GW power purchase agreement with Meta.
A release from DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing, formerly the Loan Programs Office, said that the loan would cover 433 MW of new capacity and preserve around 4 GW of nuclear to help “meet growing electricity demand in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and across the PJM [Interconnection] region.”
“Vistra’s planned investments at Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania and Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio will produce more electricity from existing nuclear plants without requiring new transmission corridors or equivalent new generation resources, while supporting the plants’ operation for an additional 20 years beyond their existing licenses,” DOE said.
The deal also includes an option for DOE to finance future uprates at Vistra’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas, according to the release.
Vistra’s January 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission specified the details of its deal with Meta: the company will supply Meta with the full 1,268 MW of capacity from its Perry nuclear plant, and the full 908 MW of capacity from its Davis-Besse plant.
Meta will also receive 213 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Perry, 80 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Davis-Besse, and 140 MW of uprate energy and capacity from Beaver Valley, the filing said.
“While this conditional commitment indicates DOE's intent to provide a loan, Vistra must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan,” DOE said.
