Two electric cooperatives would purchase electricity generated by the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan if the plant restarts, plant owner Holtec International said this week in a statement.
If Palisades restarts, something Holtec has said could happen in August 2025, if everything goes according to the company’s unprecedented plan, Wolverine Power Cooperative will purchase two thirds of the plant’s electricity and its partner, Hoosier Energy, would purchase the remainder.
Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement in a press release Tuesday announcing the deal. The company did say the agreement would be “multi-decadal.”
A Holtec spokesperson in June said that the company thought it might need a 20-year power purchase agreement to pay back a $1-billion loan it is seeking from the Department of Energy to help restart the plant.
Holtec has said it needs the DOE to pay for maintenance at Palisades before the 1970s-vintage reactor can be refueled and restarted. As of Tuesday DOE had not announced whether it would provide the loan, which Holtec applied for earlier this year. A Holtec spokesperson this month said the company hoped to hear back from the agency this year.
Holtec also needs regulatory approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to refuel the Palisades reactor, which the company bought from Entergy in 2022 to decommission. In late August, Holtec said it would ask the NRC to add operations back to the company’s Palisades license. That license today allows only for decommissioning and demolishing the plant.
