WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) today announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion to finance nuclear uprates and modernization across Vistra’s nuclear fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Today’s announcement will deliver more reliable American energy, strengthen the grid, lower costs, and meet growing power demand across the 13-state PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM) region.
The investment advances President Trump’s Executive Order Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base, and marks another major step in restoring American nuclear leadership.
“President Trump promised to unleash an American nuclear renaissance, and the Energy Department is delivering,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. “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.”
The projects will preserve nearly 4 gigawatts (GW) of reliable baseload power—enough to power more than 3 million homes—and add 433 megawatts (MW) of new nuclear capacity, helping meet growing electricity demand in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and across the PJM region. The investments will support approximately 3,000 project-related jobs in engineering, construction, and planned outage work while preserving thousands of permanent, well-paying 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,” said EDF Director Gregory A. Beard. “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 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. EDF’s conditional loan commitment also includes an option to finance potential future uprates at Vistra’s Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas.
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.
