Making Advanced Reactor Development Work in Ohio

Turning Point Reactors: Advanced Nuclear for Reliable Clean Power

Turning Point Reactors are advanced generation IV small or large modular reactors and microreactors – a new generation of nuclear technology designed to be safer, more affordable, and flexible than legacy reactors. These reactors (typically 1–300 MW in size for SMRs, Small Modular Reactors - and 300 MW - 1.4 GW for LMRs, Large Modular Reactors) can be factory-fabricated and transported to a site, including remote or industrial. They provide constant, high-density power without carbon emissions.

• Resilient 24/7 Electricity: Turning Point Reactors deliver continuous, reliable power output. They can run for years on a single fuel load, ensuring critical facilities have power that “cannot be disrupted by external threats or grid failures,” as a recent Presidential directive noted. This makes them ideal for supporting mission-critical operations, such as data centers and defense installations.

• Clean Energy & Emissions Goals: These reactors produce carbon-free electricity while consuming nuclear waste and are integrated with a plasma gasification facility and a syngas-to-liquid transportation fuels facility. Supporters contend that Turning Point Facilities will be crucial for the carbon-negative production of electricity, ultra-clean transportation fuels derived from municipal solid waste or other waste feedstocks, and the production of high-performance aggregates for blacktop and concrete. Turning Point Technologies enables not only baseload power without greenhouse gases, but also consumes waste products that would have created methane if landfilled, thereby becoming carbon negative. Deploying Turning Point Facilities aligns with state and federal climate objectives while maintaining grid reliability even when wind or solar output fluctuates.

• Industrial and Economic Development: Turning Point Reactors can be sited on or near industrial facilities to supply process heat or power directly. They are well-suited to serve energy-intensive industries – for example, large data centers, steel mills with electric arc furnaces, aluminum processing plants, or hydrogen electrolysis hubs. By providing dedicated, stable power to these high-load customers, advanced reactors can improve industrial productivity and help attract and retain major employers in Ohio.

• Safety Innovations: Modern Turning Point Facilities incorporate passive safety features and use only a fraction of the fuel of legacy reactors. Proponents note that small modular reactors and microreactors carry a smaller radioactive inventory, reducing the potential impact of any potential incident. Many Turning Point Reactor designs can be installed underground or in robust containment, further minimizing risk and enhancing safety. All projects would remain under stringent Nuclear Regulatory Commission oversight to ensure public safety.

• National Security and Leadership: The federal government recognizes advanced reactors as a strategic priority. A 2025 Executive Order emphasized accelerating advanced reactor deployment to “unleash the domestic nuclear industrial base” and outpace foreign competitors. By supporting Turning Point Reactors, Ohio and the U.S. can lead in next-generation nuclear technology, securing supply chains and high-tech jobs.

Microgrids: Enhancing Grid Reliability and Resilience

Microgrids are localized electric networks that can operate in conjunction with the main grid or independently in “island” mode. A microgrid typically integrates a small power generation source (e.g. a Turning Point Reactor facility) with a group of nearby customers. This configuration enhances reliability by mitigating outages and maintaining critical loads energized during broader grid disruptions.

• Islanding for Reliability: Unlike the traditional grid, a microgrid can disconnect from the central grid when disturbances occur and immediately supply its customers with power. During Superstorm Sandy (2012), facilities with microgrids kept their lights on while neighboring areas went dark. In an outage, microgrid generation can automatically maintain power to hospitals, emergency services, or industrial processes, preventing costly downtime and hazards.

• Resilience and Faster Recovery: By limiting the spread of outages and prioritizing key loads, microgrids improve community resilience. Critical services can continue operating or recover quickly even if the main grid is severely damaged. In effect, microgrids act as self-sufficient “islands” of power stability, buying time until utility repairs are made. Utilities themselves recognize this benefit – some are exploring microgrids at operations centers to speed restoration efforts in major blackouts.

• Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings: Microgrids can reduce energy costs for participants through efficient energy management. Advanced controllers optimize local generation and storage, potentially drawing from the grid when prices are low and using onsite power when grid prices spike. They can even sell excess power or grid services (like frequency regulation or emergency capacity) back to the central system, improving overall grid stability. This two-way flexibility turns consumers into “prosumers” and incentivizes private investment in grid support.

• Integrating Clean Energy: Microgrids facilitate the integration of Turning Point Facilities. By balancing generation and load locally, a microgrid can incorporate Turning Point Facilities without impacting the wider grid’s balance. This supports state interests in meeting reliability and resiliency targets and can reduce strain on transmission lines.

• Robustness against Threats: Local microgrids also mitigate risks from physical and cyber threats. A diversified network of microgrids is less vulnerable to single-point failures or attacks than a wholly centralized grid. In emergencies, they can provide secure power for disaster response hubs and defense installations, a need highlighted by national security.

Behind-the-Meter Agreements and Utility Participation in Microgrids

To fully realize the benefits of Turning Point Reactors and microgrids, supportive policies must allow innovative behind-the-meter (BTM) power purchase agreements and utility engagement. Behind-the-meter generation refers to energy produced on the customer side of the utility meter – typically on-site or nearby – supplying power directly to one or multiple customers without flowing through the broader grid’s wholesale market. Enabling unrestricted BTM deals by EDUs (Electric Distribution Utilities) and CRES (Competitive Retail Electric Service) Providers in Ohio will unlock private investment and partnerships necessary for these projects.

• Framework in Ohio Law: Historically, Ohio law permitted behind-the-meter generation only when located on a customer’s own premises. New energy legislation (H.B. 15, passed into law, and S.B. 2) expands BTM opportunities by allowing generation situated on property owned or controlled by either the customer or a generation provider, and even to serve multiple co-located mercantile customers. For example, a small reactor on a brownfield site could legally send power to an adjacent industrial park under these provisions. S.B. 2 seems to impose a reasonable geographic limit (the generator within one mile of customers) to ensure the microgrid remains local in nature. However, we recommend expanding this to up to 50 miles, with the entirety of the microgrid contained within Ohio. This would provide more competition, which benefits all Ohioans.

• Additionally: We can envision in the near future where entire communities that are tired of the energy markets created by PJM, which have led to artificially high energy costs and have not provided for a more intelligent design of the grid, including the consideration of retiring generation and the vested interests of the State of Ohio with competition with neighboring states - as well as not ensuring that Ohio's distribution infrastructure is well maintained. Communities may want to opt for forming their own microgrid through a regionally focused energy supplier. This would effectively put energy regulation in the hands of local communities with oversight provided by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

• Utility-Led Microgrids: The legislation, as introduced, would grandfather existing utility-run BTM projects but prohibit the development of new ones. However, allowing Ohio’s electric distribution utilities (EDUs) to partner in microgrid development can be very beneficial. EDUs have the technical expertise to build and operate microgrids reliably, and they are regulated to act in the public interest. By permitting utilities to enter into behind-the-meter supply agreements (with appropriate oversight), lawmakers can leverage utilities’ strengths to accelerate microgrid deployment. Any such projects can be structured so that costs and risks are borne only by the participating customers, not by the general ratepayers (note that the State of Ohio and ratepayers have traditionally paid for the transmission infrastructure for renewable energy). In fact, the new laws explicitly prohibit an EDU from charging non-participating customers for any costs associated with a behind-the-meter generation facility, ensuring no cross-subsidization.

• Financing New Reactors via PPAs: Long-term power purchase agreements are a key tool to finance innovative energy projects. High-volume energy users (like data centers or steel mills) signing multi-decade contracts for reactor output provide revenue certainty that helps these capital-intensive reactors get built. By authorizing behind-the-meter PPAs, the legislature would allow, for example, a steel manufacturer to contract for steady power from an on-site SMR (Small Modular Reactor) at an agreed rate. This arrangement benefits both parties: the industry receives reliable, fixed-price power (protecting it from market volatility), and the reactor project secures an anchor customer to support its economics. Federal experts have identified private-sector power contracts as critical to the commercialization of advanced reactors, alongside measures such as cost-sharing and tax credits.

• Economic Development and Jobs: Allowing expanded behind-the-meter energy projects by EDUs will make Ohio more attractive for investment by energy-intensive industries. Companies today often choose locations based on power availability and cost. The option to partner with a Turning Point Reactor or microgrid for on-site energy can draw new data centers, advanced manufacturing plants, or hydrogen production facilities to the state. These projects, in turn, mean construction jobs, skilled engineering and operations jobs, and an expanded tax base for Ohio communities. Moreover, Ohio’s Priority Investment Areas policy already encourages redevelopment of industrial brownfields for energy projects. A Turning Point Reactor at a retired coal site, supplying nearby factories under BTM agreements, would align perfectly with this vision by revitalizing a former fossil energy site with next-generation nuclear technology.

How Microgrids Improve Grid Robustness

A network of customer-sited microgrids supported by Turning Point Reactors will not fragment or weaken the electric grid – instead, it will make the overall system more robust and reliable. Some skeptics worry that widespread behind-the-meter generation could reduce utility revenues or shift costs to consumers. In practice, intelligent policy design and regulation can address these concerns while capturing substantial reliability gains:

• Reliability Spillover Benefits: When a microgrid sustains power to critical loads during a broader outage, it reduces strain on emergency services and speeds up regional recovery. For instance, if a storm knocks out grid power, a campus or industrial microgrid can continue to operate (fueling its own operations and potentially aiding its neighbors), meaning fewer people are without essential services. By containing outages, microgrids can limit the scope of blackouts, benefiting even those not directly on the microgrid.

• Ancillary Services to the Grid: Far from operating in isolation, microgrids can actively support the wider grid. They can feed surplus power back during peak periods or provide ancillary services, such as voltage support, reactive power, and frequency regulation. In effect, microgrids act as mini-power plants and backup systems that PJM and utilities can call upon to bolster capacity during emergencies or high demand. This flexibility enhances grid stability for everyone.

• Mitigating Capacity Shortfalls: Given projections of significant generation retirements in coming years, microgrid generators (including small reactors) help ensure sufficient generation is available. They contribute to resource adequacy by adding new sources of capacity exactly where needed – often on the distribution system close to load centers – reducing reliance on distant power plants and long transmission lines. This localized capacity can defer expensive grid upgrades and improve efficiency (with fewer line losses).

• Fair Cost Allocation: Concerns about cost shifting can be addressed through regulatory frameworks. Ohio’s pending rules require that only microgrid participants pay for the microgrid infrastructure and generation, preventing any unfair cost burden on other ratepayers. Additionally, participants can still pay their share for maintenance of the wider grid when they use it (through standby charges or demand charges), so that everyone contributes appropriately to the common infrastructure. With these measures, microgrids and BTM generation can grow without undermining utility cost recovery for public grid needs.

• Utility Integration, Not Bypass: Importantly, microgrids need not mean a loss of utility oversight. Utilities can serve as partners or operators of microgrids (subject to policy allowances), ensuring professional management and integration with grid operations. Even when third parties develop microgrids, coordination protocols with the utility (for safe islanding/reconnection) maintain grid safety. In short, microgrids can be integrated into utility planning as assets that enhance overall service reliability, rather than being viewed as rogue systems. Ohio’s approach can encourage collaboration instead of competition: e.g. by allowing EDUs to facilitate microgrids for community resilience projects or critical infrastructure, under Public Utilities Commission supervision.

Addressing Common Concerns

Opponents of behind-the-meter deals and multi-user microgrids have raised several concerns. Legislators should be aware of these points and the evidence that such issues can be managed or outweighed by the benefits:

• Impact on Rates for Others: Concern: If big customers leave the grid or self-supply, remaining customers might shoulder grid costs. Response: Proper rules ensure no cross-subsidy – BTM project costs are isolated to participants. Large industrial users already negotiate special tariffs; allowing them a microgrid option is simply another form of contract. Moreover, keeping large employers’ energy needs met in-state (rather than seeing them relocate due to high costs or outages) ultimately protects the broader rate base and economy. Let's also look at microgrids as more competition on the grid, and competition is not a bad thing.

• Grid Safety and Reliability: Concern: Decentralized generation or frequent islanding could destabilize the grid. Response: Microgrids are designed to disconnect and reconnect seamlessly without harming the grid. Standards (IEEE 1547 etc.) govern safe interconnection. When not islanded, microgrids operate like any other distributed generator. In fact, by supplying extra power or cutting demand at critical times, they make the grid more reliable, not less. The key is coordination through grid codes and communication, all of which is achievable with today’s smart grid technologies.

• Utility Financial Health: Concern: Utilities worry about revenue erosion if many customers generate their own power. Response: Even with more BTM generation, utilities remain indispensable for providing backup supply, maintaining wires, and managing balancing services for which they will be compensated. Microgrid participants typically remain connected to the grid for redundancy and may pay standby fees. Furthermore, our proposed business model allows utilities to own or invest in microgrid assets (with regulatory approval) to earn a return, turning a potential threat into an opportunity for modernization.

• Local Siting and Community Acceptance: Concern: Projects like reactors or large generation units might face local opposition (NIMBY-ism). Response: Ohio’s policy already ensures local control for siting small energy projects – generation under 50 MW must comply with county/township zoning and public input processes. This means communities will have a voice in any microgrid or reactor installation. Early engagement and education can also build support by highlighting economic benefits (jobs, tax revenue) and safety assurances. Notably, advanced reactors’ safety record and small footprint help their acceptance; for example, some Gen IV designs can sit within existing industrial sites unobtrusively. State incentives (like the tax exemptions for projects on brownfields) can be coupled with community benefit agreements to ensure local residents see direct benefits from nearby microgrid projects.

Conclusion

Turning Point Reactors and microgrids represent a strategic investment in Ohio’s energy future. They address urgent reliability and capacity needs while advancing clean energy and economic development goals. By supporting behind-the-meter generation agreements and clarifying the role of utilities in microgrid deployment, lawmakers can remove barriers to these innovations. This will enable high-volume energy users – from tech server farms to steel mills and modern hydrogen producers – to confidently expand operations in Ohio with the affordable, reliable power they require. It will also strengthen grid resilience for all citizens, ensuring that essential services remain powered in the face of storms or other disruptions.

Legislators at the state and federal levels are encouraged to facilitate public-private collaboration in the energy sector. Supporting policies that enable microgrid and advanced reactor projects to thrive, with suitable regulatory safeguards, will keep Ohio at the forefront of the energy transition. It is a rare opportunity to simultaneously enhance grid reliability, attract investment, and secure a clean energy supply for decades to come. Supporting Turning Point Technology now will set a foundation for a more robust and prosperous future.