Amazon will not abandon the “nuclear” data center even after the regulator’s ban, and Constellation will not abandon the Microsoft project

Amazon has announced its intention to move forward with its project to build an AWS data center campus at the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania. According to Datacenter Knowledge, work will continue even after FERC rejected a deal with Talen Energy to provide additional power to the facility. Constellation Energy, which signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft, also confirmed its intention to continue developing the construction of data centers near nuclear power plants.

FERC recently opposed Talen’s request to increase energy supply for AWS’s $650 million future campus, which will eventually grow to 15 buildings. In response to news of FERC’s ban, shares of American energy companies fell in price, and investors said the regulator’s decision would hinder attempts by IT giants to gain quick access to nuclear energy to power their data centers. However, after the announcement of the continuation of the project, shares of Talen and Amazon rose.

As part of the deal, the campus will be powered directly from the nuclear power plant, which, according to other energy companies, threatens the reliability of the power grid and will lead to higher tariffs for other consumers. Previously, Talen received the right to supply 300 MW to the campus, but FERC prohibited increasing the capacity to 480 MW. AWS, like other hyperscalers, is desperate for electricity to support AI data center growth.

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Other market players are also active. Thus, Constellation Energy intends to support the construction of data centers at its power plants, without looking back at the FERC decision on Susquehanna, DataCenter Dynamics reports. But this will require reforms to the rules governing transparency, pricing, etc. According to the company, data centers located near power plants will not affect the reliability of power grids – if necessary, the capacity allocated by the data center will be given to other consumers. At the same time, data centers will still have to pay network operators for energy transportation.

However, the FERC decision also adversely affected Constellation’s market position; its shares fell significantly in price, despite good revenue in the third quarter of 2024. Constellation is very interested in easing restrictions after signing a 20-year contract to supply 100% of the energy from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Crane Clean Energy Center, CCEC) to Microsoft data centers.