DOE commits $10.1 billion in loans to Constellation and Alliant

DOE announced $10.1 billion in loan commitments to Constellation and Alliant on Oct. 28, backing 3.7 GW of nuclear uprates and new gas and storage capacity.

Alliant's $5.1 billion portion has closed across two utility subsidiaries: about $1.6 billion for Wisconsin Power & Light and $3.5 billion for Interstate Power & Light. The remaining $5.0 billion for Constellation is conditional, according to DOE.

For infrastructure allocators, funding status separates the two packages: Alliant's loans have closed, while Constellation's commitment stays conditional until technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions are met. Constellation must satisfy those conditions "before the Department enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan," DOE said. Capital or offtake planned around the uprate capacity therefore sits ahead of an unfunded commitment, while the Alliant subsidiaries can draw on signed loans.

Constellation's commitment would fund almost 1.1 GW of added capacity in PJM Interconnection and MISO by boosting output and modernizing existing reactors, according to DOE. The named sites are Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities in Illinois, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Limerick in Pennsylvania. The commitment also carries an option to finance future uprates at additional Constellation facilities, DOE said.

Alliant's $5.1 billion is aimed at lowering electricity costs and bolstering grid reliability in Iowa and Wisconsin, DOE said. It supports more than 2.6 GW of "new or upgraded power generation capacity" through new natural gas-fired plants, energy storage systems and upgrades to existing generation. Alliant had previously been tapped by the Biden-era Loan Programs Office for $3 billion in potential loans to its utility subsidiaries. Its Iowa territory is also where a 10-acre data center campus could draw up to 46 MW, as Private Wealth Daily previously reported.

EDF manages DOE loan programs with a combined authority exceeding $300 billion. DOE said the Alliant loans are the administration's tenth financial close and the sixth and seventh utility financings completed through the program, which has also announced loans to AEP Texas, Southern Co., DTE Gas and others this year.