Vistra says Meta partnership secures Perry plant through 2066; plans roughly 213 MW power uprate by 2031

Terry Brown, site vice president at Vistra’s Perry plant, told the Lake County Board of Commissioners during the workshop that Vistra has a power purchase agreement with Meta and is pursuing a roughly 20-year extension of Perry’s operating license, from 2046 to 2066, to support long-term operations.

"We got into a power purchase agreement with Meta," Brown said, adding that the deal "allowed us to ... extend the license ... out to 2066." He also said the company is planning plant upgrades expected to yield about "213 megawatts ... of additional power," with work targeted for completion around 2031.

Why it matters: Vistra framed the agreement as stabilizing the plant’s future and enabling multi-year upgrades that the company says will increase output and extend the plant’s operational horizon. Brown thanked the community and the commission, saying support after prior shutdown announcements and financial difficulty helped sustain the site.

Brown said Vistra is evaluating opportunities that include small modular reactors (SMRs) in the longer term, but that Perry would not necessarily be in the first wave. "We are looking at small modular reactors," he said, and listed other Vistra sites under review, including Davis Bessey (as stated in the transcript), Comanche Peak and a site in Pennsylvania. He added that the company will consider economic feasibility and environmental studies before advancing such projects.

Commissioners pressed for specifics about the current upgrade plan. A commissioner clarified that the company’s near-term work is equipment and systems upgrades to use reactor output more efficiently rather than construction of a new reactor. Brown confirmed the work is an upgrade to the plant’s "secondary side," not the addition of a new reactor, and said the upgrades will involve large pieces of equipment arriving over several years.

Brown outlined a phased outage schedule tied to the upgrades: an outage in 2027 that resembles routine refueling work, a further upgrade in 2029 and a major outage in 2031 that the company expects will be the largest period of construction activity. In response to a question about local traffic and workforce impacts, he said Vistra expects increased contractor presence during those outages and committed to coordinating construction timing with county officials.

Brown also recounted earlier difficulties several years ago when the company announced shutdowns and bankruptcy filings, and he directly thanked the community and the commission for support that he said helped keep the plant operating.

The workshop adjourned after the presentation. A motion to adjourn passed on a roll call vote in which Commissioners Plastick, McIntosh and Beveridge voted in favor.

What was not said or remains unspecified: Brown did not provide detailed cost estimates, permitting timelines, contractor names, or funding sources for the uprates or license extension; those items were not specified in the presentation.