Nucor Steel Brandenburg
Large load · 100 RONNIE GREENWELL COMMERCE ROAD, Brandenburg, KY
Nucor Steel Brandenburg is a $1.35 billion electric arc furnace plate mill at the Buttermilk Falls Industrial Park in Meade County, Kentucky. It was designed for about 1.2 million tons a year of cut-to-length, heat-treated and discrete plate. Meade County RECC is the retail supplier and Big Rivers Electric is the wholesale supplier, under special contracts the Kentucky PSC approved in 2020. Big Rivers says the mill completed construction and began taking service under those contracts in 2023. The contracted demand is confidential.
Overview
Big Rivers and Meade County RECC filed a retail contract with Nucor and a wholesale letter agreement in October 2019 (Case No. 2019-00365). The PSC approved both on August 17, 2020. The retail agreement runs in three pricing phases. After commercial operation, Nucor pays a monthly demand charge up to a contract threshold and, above it, the greater of Big Rivers' Large Industrial tariff demand charge or its out-of-pocket cost per MW, plus on- and off-peak energy charges. The later terms are confidential. The PSC also reinstated a Large Industrial Customer Expansion tariff, now limited to new or expanded loads of at least 50 MW, which prices qualifying load at Big Rivers' actual market purchase cost.
Profile
- Replacing the smelter load
- The PSC framed the Nucor contract against Big Rivers' loss of two aluminum smelters, about 850 MW and more than half its native load at the time. It said the plate mill would significantly increase Big Rivers' native load and briefly leave it capacity-deficit. Big Rivers planned to hedge the mill's energy with bilateral contracts and solar purchase power agreements whose contract price Nucor is obligated to pay. Big Rivers' 2023 IRP forecast adds up to 314 MW of new large industrial load, including the Meade County steel mill. The rating agencies cited the approved Nucor contract as a credit positive.
- Transmission built for the mill
- Big Rivers built a dedicated 345/34.5 kV Brandenburg Steel Mill substation as the mill's delivery point. It is fed from a new 345/161 kV Otter Creek substation, a new 345 kV circuit from Otter Creek, and a new Redmon Road switching station that ties into the 345 kV grid. A territorial boundary change with LG&E made Meade County RECC the mill's retail supplier.
- Fuel-cost treatment under review
- In fuel adjustment clause reviews, the PSC questioned Big Rivers' practice of excluding Nucor's energy from the sales used to set the FAC factor while keeping the costs of serving it. Big Rivers refiled the monthly forms from December 2022 onward with Nucor's consumption removed from 'Non-Tariff Market Rate Sales to Members.' Big Rivers' annual MRSM filings report the financial effect of the Nucor contract to the PSC each year.
Facility
- Activity
- Electric arc furnace steel plate mill (cut-to-length, heat-treated and discrete plate; about 1.2 million tons a year)
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- Jan 27, 2020
- PSC order in the territorial case making Meade County RECC the mill's retail supplier
psc.ky.gov
- May 1, 2020
- PSC grants CPCN for the 345 kV line and Redmon Road switching station serving the mill
psc.ky.gov
- Aug 17, 2020
- PSC approves the Nucor retail and wholesale power contracts and the LICX tariff
psc.ky.gov
- Jan 1, 2023
- Mill completes construction and begins taking service under the Nucor contracts
psc.ky.gov