DOE Backs Constellation and Alliant With $10.1B in Loans
The Energy Department announced a conditional $5 billion commitment for Constellation nuclear uprates and closed $5.1 billion in loans to Alliant Energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $10.1 billion in loans and loan guarantees to Constellation Energy and Alliant Energy this week. The money is meant to support 3.7 GW of new capacity from nuclear and other technologies. Both packages could finance uprates at existing generation facilities, which Energy Secretary Chris Wright called "commonsense" energy policy.
On Tuesday, the department's Office of Energy Dominance Financing announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $5 billion for Constellation. It would pay for nuclear uprates and modernization across the company's fleet in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Constellation: uprates at existing plants
The commitment would add almost 1.1 GW of capacity in the PJM Interconnection and Midcontinent Independent System Operator markets. DOE listed planned investments at the Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities plants in Illinois, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Limerick in Pennsylvania.
The commitment also includes an option to finance future uprate projects at other Constellation facilities. Constellation still has to meet technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before DOE signs definitive financing documents and funds the loan.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright called uprates that maximize power generation "yet another example of the commonsense energy addition policies the Trump Administration is embracing." DOE has set a 5-GW goal for uprates and restarts across the U.S. nuclear fleet, and Wright said 95% of that capacity has been identified.
Alliant: $5.1 billion for gas and storage
On Wednesday, the office, which operated as the Loan Programs Office under the Biden administration, said it had closed two loans to Alliant Energy totaling $5.1 billion. DOE said the money will help lower electricity costs and strengthen grid reliability in Iowa and Wisconsin.
A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows the split. Wisconsin Power & Light gets about $1.6 billion, and Interstate Power and Light gets $3.5 billion.
The funds will help add more than 2.6 GW of new or upgraded generation capacity. That includes new natural gas-fired plants, energy storage systems and upgrades to existing generation. The Biden-era program had earlier picked Alliant for $3 billion in potential loans to the same two subsidiaries.
DOE said the Alliant loan is the Trump administration's tenth financial close and the sixth and seventh utility financings completed through the program. Earlier this year the program announced loans to AEP Texas, Southern Co., DTE Gas and others.
The program manages loan authority above $300 billion. According to its strategic plan, it is using those funds to bring about a "nuclear renaissance" while addressing energy affordability.
Source: Utility Dive