Dive Brief:
- Constellation Energy plans to restart the 835-MW Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear generating station in Pennsylvania in 2028, the company said Friday.
- Microsoft will purchase energy from the reactivated power plant over 20 years to match power consumed by its data centers in the PJM Interconnection, Constellation said in a news release. But there are no plans to colocate a Microsoft data center at the plant, according to a Constellation spokesperson.
- "This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative [and] Microsoft continues to collaborate with energy providers to develop carbon-free energy sources to help meet the grid's capacity and reliability needs," Microsoft Vice President of Energy Bobby Hollis said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Exelon, which spun off its generation business to form Constellation in 2022, prematurely shuttered Three Mile Island Unit 1 in 2019 “due to poor economics,” Constellation President and CEO Joe Dominguez said in a statement.
The plant sits adjacent to Three Mile Island Unit 2, which ceased operations in 1979 after a partial meltdown.
Unit 2 is separately owned by Energy Solutions and is in the process of being decommissioned, Constellation said. The accident did not affect operations at Unit 1, which was “among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid,” Dominguez said.
Constellation plans to spend about $1.6 billion to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, which will meet eligibility criteria for federal 45Y clean energy tax credits, the company said Friday in an investor presentation.
Constellation expects its fixed-price contract with Microsoft to increase its annual base earnings per share growth rate from 10% to 13% from 2024 to 2030, according to the presentation.
The recommissioned unit will produce about 7 million MWh a year and will “[pave] the way for future strategic partnerships,” Constellation said.
The recommissioning process will require “significant investments” in plant systems including the turbine, generator, main power transformer, cooling and control systems, Constellation said.
Constellation will also need to obtain approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restore its authority to load fuel and operate the reactor, a Constellation spokesperson told Utility Dive. That will involve “a series of regulatory submittals designed to restore the plant’s licensing basis to what existed when the unit ceased operation in September 2019,” an evaluation of environmental impacts as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, and site inspections by NRC throughout the process, the spokesperson said.
Constellation expects NRC’s review to be complete in 2027, the spokesperson said, teeing up Unit 1’s recommissioning in 2028.
Constellation plans to file a separate application with NRC to extend the plant’s operating license through at least 2054, the company said.
The recommissioned unit will be called the Crane Clean Energy Center, after the late former Exelon CEO Chris Crane. It’s expected to employ about 600 people and supply enough electricity to meet approximately six years forecasted load growth in Pennsylvania, according to a Brattle Group study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council.
The PJM Interconnection in January said its summer peak would jump from 147 GW to 179 GW and its winter peak from 135 GW to 165 GW in the next 10 years. It forecast a 220,000 GWh increase in net energy load over the same period.
Constellation’s Friday announcement marks the second time in as many years that the owner of a retired nuclear power plant has announced its intention to restart power generation operations.
Holtec International announced its intention last September to restart operations at its 800-MW Palisades nuclear generating station in Michigan. Holtec has since received state and federal commitments for more than $2 billion in support of the effort, including a $1.5 billion conditional loan commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Holtec expects to restart operations at Palisades in October 2025, a company spokesperson told Utility Dive this month.
