Ohio Bill Would Let Utilities Own Nuclear Plants as US Power Sector Races to Add Baseload Capacity

Ohio Bill Would Let Utilities Own Nuclear Plants as US Power Sector Races to Add Baseload Capacity A proposed Ohio law allowing utility ownership of nuclear plants signals how states are scrambling to secure firm generation amid surging data centre demand. Ohio legislators are advancing a bill that would permit AEP and other state utilities to own nuclear power plants directly, a move that would reverse decades of deregulation and hand regulated monopolies a path back into baseload generation. The proposal arrives as US power demand from AI-driven data centre buildouts collides with a grid already straining under decades of underinvestment in firm capacity.¹ That matters because the US government wants to quadruple nuclear capacity from roughly 100 GW today to 400 GW by 2050, according to federal targets. Bank of America estimates the nuclear energy market represents a $10 trillion opportunity. But almost no new nuclear has been built in the US in decades, and the capital costs and permitting timelines that stalled construction a generation ago have not disappeared.^4,5 The Ohio bill is part of a broader pattern. States and utilities are reaching for any mechanism that can deliver dispatchable power at scale. NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy announced plans to merge in an all-stock deal valued at approximately $249 billion, creating what they describe as the world's largest regulated electric utility by market capitalisation. Analysts at Deloitte noted that scale is becoming increasingly critical for utilities to compete, access capital, and execute infrastructure buildouts efficiently.^8,9 The urgency is real. Fluence Energy's stock surged 98% in a single week after disclosing master supply agreements with two hyperscalers and a record $5.6 billion backlog, illustrating the appetite for companies that can deliver power infrastructure for AI. Capital is rotating into energy firms that offer nuclear and renewable baseload generation as the cleanest route to address grid constraints.¹ Across the Atlantic, the same logic is playing out at national scale. The European Commission has launched an investigation into France's plan to subsidise the construction of six new nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 10 GW, with the project estimated to cost EUR 73 billion. The probe will examine whether the proposed subsidy scheme, which would support both construction and operation of the reactors, is compatible with EU state aid rules.² Europe's nuclear push extends beyond France. Four European utilities — Finland's Fortum, Czechia's CEZ, Hungary's MVM Paks, and Slovakia's Slovenske Elektrarne — have signed an agreement with Framatome to develop a fully European fuel supply chain for VVER-type nuclear plants. The project is built around a 100% European design, including Framatome's assembly plants in France and Germany, aimed at reducing dependence on Russian nuclear fuel supplies.³ Belgium has entered exclusive negotiations with Engie over a potential acquisition of the French company's nuclear assets, prompting Engie to suspend dismantling of its fleet. The talks signal that even governments that had committed to nuclear phase-outs are reversing course as energy security concerns override earlier climate-driven shutdown schedules.¹⁰ In the US, the demand side keeps tightening. Microsoft signed a long-term deal to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island to supply its data centres. Meta has backed a handful of nuclear startups. Alphabet paid $5 billion for Intersect Power, a developer of utility-scale solar and battery storage. The tech sector is not waiting for policy to catch up.⁶ The uranium supply chain reflects the squeeze. Cameco produced about 17% of the world's uranium in 2024, second only to Kazakhstan's Kazatomprom at 21%. Orano, the next closest producer, sits at 11%. The World Nuclear Association expects demand to climb roughly 28% by 2030 and more than double by 2040. That concentration of supply against accelerating demand creates a pricing environment that few commodity markets can match for structural tightness.⁴ Americans' electricity bills are already rising, though the drivers are more prosaic than AI hype would suggest. Grid modernisation, transmission upgrades, and extreme weather costs are pushing rates higher across most states. Data centre demand is additive, not yet dominant, but the trajectory is steep enough to force regulators into uncomfortable choices about who pays for new capacity.⁶ Ohio's bill, if passed, would represent one answer: let utilities rate-base nuclear construction, spreading costs across all customers in exchange for long-term baseload security. It is the same logic that underpins the UK's Regulated Asset Base model, which Parliament approved for Sizewell C. The question is whether ratepayers will accept the cost overruns that have defined nearly every nuclear project built in the West over the past two decades.⁷ The EIA notes that electric utilities currently operate about 98 GW of nuclear generating capacity, but small modular reactors and microreactors remain largely in development rather than deployment. The gap between ambition and commissioned megawatts is where the real risk sits.⁵ Watch for the Ohio bill's committee progress and whether other states follow with similar legislation. The NextEra-Dominion merger timeline and regulatory approval process will signal how far consolidation can go. In Europe, the Commission's ruling on France's EUR 73 billion nuclear subsidy will set the template for every member state weighing new builds.