With less than a month left for nuclear plant operators to apply for the Department of Energy’s civil nuclear credits program, the agency is leaving open the possibility that it will need extra time to review submissions, a spokesperson said Monday.
Although DOE had said in April that it would notify awardees around 30 days after the application period closed, “the timing will ultimately depend on the number of applications received and whether we need to request additional information from applicants to support our decision making,” an agency spokesperson told Exchange Monitor via email Monday.
Currently, the application deadline for the program’s first $1.2 billion payout is Sep. 6, a date which DOE in June pushed back from July 5. The power plant bailout, part of November’s infrastructure bill, has a total of $6 billion for financially troubled nuclear plants over five years.
DOE planned to notify plant operators that are conditionally accepted for bailouts, the spokesperson said. That information will be publicly disclosed, along with information about the amount of credit allocated and the average dollar-per-megawatt-hour credit price.
So far, DOE’s credits program, aimed at propping up the nation’s aging nuclear fleet as a source of carbon-free energy, has had a couple of potential takers. Among those is California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant, whose operator Pacific Gas & Electric told Exchange Monitor in July that it would bid on a credit to “reduce costs for our customers should there be a change in state policy extending operations at the plant.”
Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has also expressed interest in a federal bailout for her state’s recently-closed Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. A spokesperson for the governor’s office told Exchange Monitor last week that Lansing was working with potential buyers and other stakeholders to restart the Covert, Mich., plant.
