Energy Department Closes $5.1 Billion Package for Alliant, Commits to Up to $5 Billion Nuclear Loan for Constellation
Key Facts
The U.S. Energy Department announced on October 28 that it had closed a $5.1 billion loan package for Alliant Energy, a day after announcing a conditional commitment of up to $5 billion to upgrade Constellation’s nuclear fleet. The two announcements bring together project financing to increase electricity supplies in U.S. states, but they are at different stages of execution: Alliant’s package has reached financial close, while the Constellation loan has not yet been disbursed. The department said Constellation’s upgrades could add about 1.1 gigawatts of electricity in the PJM and MISO regions. Alliant’s projects, the department said, will provide electricity equivalent to the needs of about two million homes. The broader package targets existing nuclear plants and natural gas and storage facilities, alongside company estimates of customer savings and construction-related jobs.
The conditional commitment announced for Constellation on October 27 is for up to $5 billion and is earmarked to upgrade and increase the output of its nuclear fleet in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The loan amount remains a conditional ceiling, as the company must meet technical, legal, environmental and financial requirements before signing final financing documents and receiving the funds. The targeted sites include Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities in Illinois; Calvert Cliffs in Maryland; and Limerick in Pennsylvania. The work focuses on increasing output at existing plants, not adding new nuclear facilities under this announcement. Energy Secretary Chris Wright described the plant upgrades as "another example of common-sense energy addition policies that maximize the output of existing nuclear energy facilities."
By contrast, the financial close of Alliant’s $5.1 billion package was completed on October 28, benefiting two wholly owned subsidiaries of the company: Interstate Power & Light in Iowa and Wisconsin Power & Light in Wisconsin. The proposed projects include 1.6 gigawatts of new natural gas generation, a 240-megawatt increase in the capacity of existing gas facilities, one gigawatt of energy storage, and 2 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas storage capacity. The Energy Department says these projects will provide electricity equivalent to the consumption of about two million homes. The plan thus combines new generation, upgrades to existing facilities, and electricity and gas storage in projects in Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant said the proposed projects would go through a "transparent regulatory process" before moving ahead.
Alliant links the loans to an expected impact on customer bills and the local economy: it says the loans run for 30 years and that it expects cumulative customer savings of up to $1.2 billion over their life. The company also expects to provide more than 1,600 local jobs during construction. These are estimates from Alliant, while execution of the proposed projects remains tied to the regulatory process the company said it would follow. The loans’ length provides a timeframe for estimating the savings announced by the company, but does not change the fact that those savings are projections over the full financing term. The figures are among the company’s justifications for the projects backed by the closed package.
The background to Alliant’s financing dates to an earlier proposal in the final days of the Joe Biden administration, when the loan under consideration in January 2025 was $3 billion and conditional, according to Reuters. The current package closed at $5.1 billion, according to the Energy Department’s announcement, which described the beneficiaries as two wholly owned Alliant subsidiaries. On the nuclear front, the department said that after adding Constellation’s projects, the UPRISE program had identified about 4.7 gigawatts of additional nuclear capacity, equivalent to 95% of its target of 5 gigawatts by 2029. The department says an executive order calls on it to work with the industry to facilitate a 5-gigawatt increase in existing reactor capacity and begin construction of 10 new large reactors with completed designs by 2030. This places Constellation’s upgrades within a broader program to increase nuclear capacity, while Alliant’s projects remain a mix of gas and storage.
At the October 30 close, Constellation Energy (CEG) shares stood at $262.38, while Alliant Energy (LNT) shares closed at $71.65. The prices came after the financing announcements on October 27 and 28, and the available data do not include a comparison with share movements in previous sessions or a percentage change linked to the announcement. EL7 published a story on October 27 about the conditional commitment of $5 billion to increase Constellation’s nuclear capacity, before Alliant’s package closed the following day. For Constellation, the next step remains meeting the technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions required for final financing. Alliant said its proposed projects would proceed through a transparent regulatory process.