PERRY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The U.S. Department of Energy announced a $4.2 billion loan agreement with the operator of the Perry nuclear power plant to upgrade plants and expand capacity at Vistra’s nuclear facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Under the agreement, Vistra, which operates the plant, will use the loan to finance upgrades and modernization at Perry, Davis-Besse in northwest Ohio and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania.
“This loan commitment recognizes something that we've long believed and that is the fastest, most-practical way to add reliable power is to do it in the plants that are already operating,” said Vistra CEO Jim Burke at a Monday news conference.
The goal is to add 433 additional megawatts of new electricity to the region’s power grid.
“Expanding and extending existing capacity is a remarkably efficient use of governmental resources,” said Greg Beard, director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing.
Under the plan, Perry’s operational life will be expanded to 2066, and its generating capacity is expected to jump by more than 200 megawatts.
“Two hundred megawatts is about 150,000 homes’ average consumption of electricity, so it’s a lot,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
The announcement came about 10 months after Vistra announced power purchase agreements with Meta.
According to a January news release from Vistra, under that deal the energy company agreed to provide more than 2,600 megawatts of nuclear energy for 20 years to support Meta’s operations, including the 433 additional megawatts from the company’s three plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
But Vistra’s CEO said Monday that the deal doesn’t mean the upgrades are tied to plans for a data center.
“The Meta agreement ensures that there's sufficient revenue for us to pay all of the capital expenditures to do this work,” said Burke. “Pay for the jobs and have a long-term contract that we can take the revenues, pay back the loan over time and make sure their power is on the grid which lowers prices for all customers.”
The project, expected to finish in 2031, is predicted to add between 500 and 600 jobs at each site during the upgrades and, potentially, make Perry the largest nuclear power plant in the country, said Burke.
