SOO Green, ONE Nuclear Sign Letter of Intent on Up to 1,000 MW for PJM

SOO Green HVDC Link and ONE Nuclear Energy signed a letter of intent on Nov. 5 to explore carrying power from a planned Iowa nuclear project, with a development target of up to 1,000 MW, into PJM over SOO Green's 2,100 MW underground transmission line.

The letter is a framework, not a contract. Any commercial terms still depend on definitive agreements plus development, regulatory and financing conditions, and the release SOO Green issued through PR Newswire says in its forward-looking statements that there is no assurance definitive agreements will be executed. The letter carries exclusivity provisions tied to nuclear generation development, but neither party disclosed their scope or length. ONE Nuclear's chief investment officer, Coen Weddepohl, said SOO Green had picked the Iowa project as one of the supply options it will offer prospective transmission customers.

The pairing is about grid access. Iowa sits in MISO, while the demand pull is in PJM's ComEd zone in northern Illinois, where a December 2025 report from Illinois agencies, cited in the release, warns of possible shortfalls from 2029. SOO Green would add 2,100 MW of controllable transfer capability straight into ComEd territory, the developers say. The release says flows on a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line can be scheduled and directed by the grid operator, unlike conventional AC lines. For a reactor in Iowa, the letter is about reaching PJM over this one line, which still needs its own approvals; the release does not say whether the project could meet PJM's capacity rules.

What is planned, and when

The roughly 350-mile line would run underground from Mason City, Iowa, to Yorkville, Illinois, mostly inside existing Canadian Pacific Railway corridors. It is developed by energyRe and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, with partners Siemens Energy, Prysmian Group, Jingoli Power and PPL Corporation. SOO Green expects to finish permitting by the end of 2026, start construction as early as 2028 and targets commercial operation in 2032. Utility Dive reported in September 2025 that the 525-kV line was still to file final documentation for an Army Corps of Engineers permit and needed interconnection approval from both MISO and PJM, and that the developers were pursuing PJM's State Agreement Approach with Illinois. The release does not say whether those approvals have since come.

The release frames the economics with projected PJM capacity prices of $732/MW-day in 2033 and $872/MW-day in 2034. Those are projections cited by SOO Green, not auction results. As Voltgrid has reported, PJM is already working on a reliability backstop, and Iowa's Duane Arnold nuclear plant, shut since 2020, is targeted to restart for Google, pending NRC approvals.

What a Letter of Intent Does Not Commit

A letter of intent records that two companies plan to negotiate; it is not a power purchase agreement or a transmission service contract. SOO Green and ONE Nuclear say any commercial arrangement still needs definitive agreements plus development, regulatory and financing steps. The only term the release describes is an exclusivity provision on nuclear generation development, with its scope and length undisclosed.

Compare a signed deal. NextEra's October 2025 agreement has Google buying power from the 615-MW Duane Arnold plant for 25 years once it restarts, and even that waits on regulatory approvals. Here no buyer, reactor design or site is named, so the 1,000 MW is a development target, and SOO Green's 2032 start is a target too.

What is not confirmed yet

Almost everything on the nuclear side is still a target. The release names no reactor design or vendor, no Iowa site, no fuel plan and no buyer for the power, and it mentions no Nuclear Regulatory Commission filing for the project. SOO Green said it stays an open-access line, so ONE Nuclear would be one possible supplier among others, and the two projects remain separate. The next dated step is SOO Green's own: completing permitting by the end of 2026.