The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing announced it would invest up to $4.2 billion that would help lower energy costs in Pennsylvania.
The investment, in the form of a conditional loan commitment, will finance nuclear uprates and modernization across Vistra’s nuclear fleet in Beaver Valley, Pa., as well as in Ohio. Officials said the announcement meant that the company would be able to strengthen the grid, lower costs and meet demand across the 13-state PJM Interconnection LLC region.
“President Trump promised to unleash an American nuclear renaissance, and the Energy Department is delivering,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said. “By getting more power out of the nuclear plants we already have, we can deliver more affordable, reliable, around the-clock energy for American families and businesses.”
Officials said the projects will preserve nearly 4 gigawatts of reliable baseload power and add 433 megawatts of new nuclear capacity. The investments support an estimated 3,000 project-related jobs in engineering, construction and planned outage work while preserving thousands of permanent jobs.
“President Trump and Secretary Wright have set a clear direction for America’s nuclear future, and EDF is financing the projects that advance that mission,” EDF Director Gregory A. Beard said. “These investments will extend the life of existing reactors, increase nuclear generation, and deliver abundant, around-the-clock power to lower costs and power American prosperity for decades to come.”
Vistra’s planned investments at Beaver Valley, and at Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio, will produce more electricity from its existing nuclear plants without requiring new transmission corridors or equivalent new generation resources. The investment will also support the plants’ operations for an additional 20 years beyond their existing licenses.
The conditional commitment means the DOE intends to provide the loan, provided that Vistra satisfies technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions. Once those requirements have been satisfied, the DOE will enter into definitive financing documents to fund the loan. The EDF’s conditional loan commitment also includes an option to finance future upgrades at the company’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas.