Big Tech is checking every nook and cranny for energy that can fuel a rapid and massive expansion of data centers. Nuclear has become a major part of that hunt, to the benefit of both traditional and advanced nuclear providers.
But while one of the biggest deals between a nuclear operator and a hyperscaler has been fraught by regulatory scrutiny, the companies say they’ve found a workaround.
Last year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) agreed to pay Talen Energy $650M to purchase a data center campus that would interconnect directly with the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. While this deal was struck down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), AWS is still planning to get the power it needs.
The new version of the relationship takes the form of a good ol’ power purchase agreement, rather than an interconnection. Under the new terms of the deal announced last week, Talen will provide 1,920 MW of grid power through 2042 to support the neighboring data center and other AWS data operations in the region.
- The new deal structure means that FERC won’t need to approve the power deployment, Talen Energy told The Register.
- As for the other data centers needing power, Pennsylvania announced last Monday that Amazon is investing an additional $20B in building new AI infrastructure in the state.
Skirt around it: FERC’s issue with the preexisting Talen/Amazon deal was a matter of fairness. Talen had permission to supply 300 MW of power directly to the Cumulus data center campus, and it planned from the beginning to ramp that up. But when the pair filed to increase the load from 300 MW to 480 MW, utilities complained, saying that directing so much energy to the data center would leave communities on the grid with unreliable power.
The new agreement is a “front-of-the-meter” deal, which means FERC can’t block the power sale because those 1,920 MW hit the grid first.
What’s next? Some hardware changes are needed between the plant and the data center campus to enable this new configuration. Talen plans to update the transmission infrastructure next year when the Susquehanna plant is offline for refueling.
Lead Reporter of Ignition
