bills for energy users, urging a group of electric utilities to announce their opposition.
Talen Energy Supply is a utility network operator. The enterprise generates, distributes, transmits, and markets electricity and also produces natural gas and other renewable energy products for residential and commercial users in the United States.
“It is an unlawful attempt to hijack this limited interconnection service agreement amendment proceeding that they have no stake in and turn it into an ad hoc national referendum on the future of data center load”, Talen mentioned in its filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
In the race to secure massive electricity supplies for powering and cooling data centers, technology companies are increasingly turning to nuclear energy as their top choice. Nuclear energy, being virtually carbon-free and providing continuous renewable energy, has become a clear favorite for the Amazon data center and the industry.
FERC’s decision will establish a precedent for deals like the one with Talen Energy, where data centers are located on the site of the power plants that feed them. This arrangement allows the center to power up quickly without being delayed in interconnection queues that can take years to clear.
In March, Talen Energy announced an agreement to sell electricity and a data center campus at its Pennsylvania nuclear power plant to Amazon Web Services (AWS). The deal would give each Amazon data center a total capacity of up to 960 megawatts, effectively powering about a million homes.
Last month a few electric utility companies, such as American Electric Power and Exelon, requested FERC to conduct a hearing to review Talen’s interconnection agreement with AWS or to reject it completely. The group argued that the agreement could lead to a $140 million per year cost burden for ordinary consumers.
Talen Energy is concerned that FERC’s decision could stop data centers from growing and prevent new power plants from being built, even as U.S. electricity demand is rising. AEP and Exelon are worried that if the deal is approved as it is, regular customers may end up paying for power infrastructure that doesn’t benefit them directly. This could also cause sudden power outrages if the plants powering data centers have unexpected problems.
It’s unclear when FERC will decide on this issue.
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