Vistra said Nov, 7 that its acquisition of Energy Harbor will accelerate the company’s transformation and lead to a “re-segmentation” of its businesses when the deal closes.
CEO Jim Burke told financial analysts during the company’s quarterly earnings call that Vistra’s “transformative acquisition” of Energy Harbor will support the Irving, Texas-based company’s clean-energy transition, one of its four strategic objectives. He said management expects to disclose the specifics of the combined company’s long-range plan in the first half of next year.
“In the meantime, we continue to opportunistically invest in renewables and energy storage growth,” Burke said.
Ohio-based Energy Harbor and its three nuclear plants — Davis-Besse, Beaver Valley and Perry — will add more than 4 GW of nuclear generation to Vistra’s existing Comanche Peak plant and its 2.4 GW of capacity.
The $6.3 billion transaction, announced in March, has run into a delay at FERC over market power concerns. The commission has said it will rule on Vistra’s application by April 11. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September approved the transfer of the plants’ operating licenses to Vistra. (See FERC Delays Ruling on Vistra Purchase of Energy Harbor.)
Vistra has committed to selling more than 1,000 MW of gas-powered generating plants to alleviate the market power concerns and says it made substantial concessions to comply with a Justice Department request in August.
“We have responded to requests from FERC, and that process is progressing,” Burke said. “We believe that will eliminate any potential remaining concerns around market competition. We continue to target a closing before the end of the year.”
The company will also begin construction on its three largest combined solar-and-storage projects next spring as part of the Illinois Coal-to-Solar and Energy Storage Initiative.
Vistra reported $1.61 billion in ongoing operations adjusted EBITDA, compared to $1.04 billion during the same period a year ago. The record-breaking Texas summer boosted its ERCOT fleet’s output to 2.5 TWh during the third quarter, its highest quarterly performance by 10%.
The company uses adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure because, it says, outside analysis of its business is improved by visibility into both net income prepared in accordance with GAAP and adjusted EBITDA.
Vistra’s share price closed at $34.77 Thursday, down 56 cents on the day.
