By Robert Walton, Senior Editor at UtilityDive
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $10.1 billion in loans and loan guarantees to Constellation Energy and Alliant Energy this week, aiming to support 3.7 GW of new capacity from nuclear and other technologies.
DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing on Tuesday announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $5 billion to finance nuclear uprates and modernization across Constellation Energy’s fleet in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
And on Wednesday, EDF, which operated as the Loan Programs Office under the Biden administration, said it closed two loans totaling $5.1 billion to Alliant Energy for new gas-fired power plants, energy storage systems and upgrades to existing generation facilities.
EDF manages loan programs with a combined authority exceeding $300 billion, and it is using those funds to bring about a “nuclear renaissance” while addressing issues of energy affordability, according to its strategic plan.
Constellation’s loan commitment would go toward adding almost 1.1 GW of capacity in the PJM Interconnection and Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets, by boosting capacity and modernizing existing nuclear plants.
“Uprates that maximize power generation ... are yet another example of the commonsense energy addition policies the Trump Administration is embracing,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said in a statement. DOE has set a 5-GW uprate and restart goal for the U.S. nuclear fleet, and Wright said 95% of that capacity has been identified.
DOE noted Constellation’s planned investments at the Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities nuclear plants in Illinois; Calvert Cliffs in Maryland; and Limerick in Pennsylvania.
“EDF’s conditional loan commitment also includes an option to finance future uprate projects at additional Constellation facilities,” DOE said. However, Constellation “must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan.”
The $5.1 billion in loans to Alliant will go to lower electricity costs and bolster grid reliability in Iowa and Wisconsin, DOE said. A filing by Alliant with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday notes separate loans to two utility subsidiaries: about $1.6 billion for Wisconsin Power & Light and $3.5 billion for Interstate Power and Light.
The funds will help add more than 2.6 GW “of new or upgraded power generation capacity” through new “natural gas-fired power plants, energy storage systems, and upgrades to existing generation facilities,” DOE said.
Alliant had previously been tapped by the Biden-era LPO for $3 billion in potential loans to its utility subsidiaries.
The Alliant loan is the Trump administration’s tenth financial close, and the sixth and seventh utility financing completed through the EDF program, DOE said. The program has also announced loans to AEP Texas, Southern Co., DTE Gas and others this year.