Key points
- The Energy Department offers up to $4.2 billion in conditional financing
- A Texas plant could be added later
- The upgrades would supply power Meta agreed to buy
- Work at Perry could start this month
The Energy Department has made a conditional commitment to lend Vistra (VST) up to $4.2 billion to upgrade its three nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Energy Secretary Chris Wright described the plan as "getting more power out of the nuclear plants we already have."
The upgrades would add 433 megawatts of new capacity, the same amount Vistra agreed in January to sell to Meta (META). Wright announced the conditional commitment on Oct. 5 at Vistra's Perry plant east of Cleveland, three days after Bloomberg first reported the plan.
See the Energy Department's post on X
Vistra shares closed up 3.5% at $144.89 on Oct. 5. Other power producers with nuclear plants also rose, with Constellation Energy (CEG) up 3.9% and Talen Energy (TLN) up 3.5%. Vistra chief executive Jim Burke bought $1.17 million of the stock in late August and early September, his first open-market purchases since March 2023.
The loan isn't final
A conditional commitment signals the department's intent to lend. Vistra "must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions" before the department signs final financing documents and pays out the money, the department said. The department didn't disclose an interest rate or repayment terms.
The offer comes from the Office of Energy Dominance Financing, which was previously called the Loan Programs Office. The office has also financed restarts of Holtec's Palisades plant in Michigan and Constellation's Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania.
The uprates would supply power Meta is buying
An uprate lets an existing reactor produce more power under an amended operating license. Vistra's January agreements with Meta cover 2,176 megawatts from the Perry and Davis-Besse plants in Ohio, plus 433 megawatts from uprates at those two plants and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania. Vistra said the 433 megawatts "will be the largest nuclear uprates supported by a corporate customer in the United States."
Several of the department's figures repeat that January announcement, including about 3,000 project-related jobs and 20 more years of operation at the plants. Vistra said Meta's purchases begin in late 2026, and the full 2,609 megawatts is scheduled to be online by 2034.
The commitment also includes an option to finance future uprates at Vistra's Comanche Peak plant in Texas. The Meta agreements cover only the three plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Perry goes first
Initial construction at Perry could begin this month. A Sept. 15 financing-office letter identifies office and maintenance buildings as the project's first stage, followed by a cooling tower and plant modifications. Those modifications may include replacing the main turbine, the generator rotor, and the in-vessel steam dryer. Increasing the reactor's licensed output would still require approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Vistra told the NRC in a Jan. 14 letter that it plans to apply for Perry's uprate in the second half of 2029, with a target of 16% more thermal power reached in the second quarter of 2031. Beaver Valley's two units and Davis-Besse would follow, one a year, with the last power increase targeted for the second quarter of 2034.
Running the plants 20 years past their current licenses would require renewals from the NRC. In a second letter that day, Vistra said it plans to apply in the third quarter of 2027 for Perry, 2028 for Beaver Valley, and 2029 for Davis-Besse. Beaver Valley Unit 1's current license expires in January 2036, and Davis-Besse's expires in April 2037.
"As recently as 2020, before Vistra owned Perry, Davis-Besse, and Beaver Valley, these plants were on a path to retirement," Stacey Doré, Vistra's chief strategy and sustainability officer, said when the Meta deal was announced in January.
