Vistra said it was engaged in discussions with large load customers for the potential sale of power from its nuclear and gas plants through long-term agreements.
The news came out of the large power producer’s third-quarter earnings call last week.
Stacey Doré, Vistra’s Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, told investors the company was pursuing deals based around multiple plants in its portfolio. She said one approach being discussed would be pursuing co-location deals at multiple sites in combination with building new generation.
Doré said Vistra specifically in discussions with two large companies about building new gas plants to support a data center project. Gas plants in both PJM and ERCOT are drawing interest, she said.
The company is also in early discussions with some of the hyperscalers about nuclear uprates, Doré said. The hyperscalers are considered the companies that are predominately driving large-scale buildout of AI data centers, like Amazon, Google and Microsoft
The topic of co-locating large loads with generation facilities is not unique to Vistra. Earlier this month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rejected a revised Interconnection Service Agreement (ISA) proposal that would have allowed expanded co-located load at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center connected to Talen Energy’s Susquehanna Nuclear plant in northeast Pennsylvania.
While Vistra President and CEO Jim Burke said the company was disappointed with the FERC ruling, he said it hasn’t impacted conversations with potential customers.
“Nothing precludes us from moving on with our plans,” said Burke. “We will need to address open issues and find the path for approval of interconnection service agreements, which we believe is doable.”
In Vistra’s latest 10-Q, the company said it was seeing multiple electricity demand drivers in its service territories, including the emergence of large data centers and the electrification of oil field operations, specifically in the Permian Basin of west Texas.
Other macroeconomic factors
Vistra’s 10-Q noted continued supply chain constraints and labor shortages that have reduced the availability of certain equipment and supply relevant to construction of renewables projects.
These challenged increased the lead time to procure certain materials necessary to maintain its generating fleet, the company said. Labor costs have also gone up, Vistra said.
The company said it is proactively managing rising material costs and supply chain issues, while carefully reassessing the timing and business cases for our planned projects. This has resulted in a “deferral of some of our planned capital spend for our renewables projects,” the 10-Q reads.
Vistra said it has proactively engaged suppliers to secure key materials needed to maintain its fleet prior to future planned outages.
