The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently rejected a request to increase power generation for a data center located next to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The U.S. will need to rapidly scale up power generation to meet future demand from AI and large data centers. This decision shows how challenging this task will be.
In March 2024, Talen Energy sold its 960-megawatt (MW) data center to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for $650 million. The data center is a co-located facility, meaning it will draw electricity directly from Susquehanna Steam Electric Station—a nuclear power plant that generates 2.5 gigawatts of power annually—rather than from the grid.
Under the agreement between Talen and Amazon, AWS must adhere to contractual power commitments that were slated to increase in 120 MW increments over the next few years, eventually reaching 960 MW. In June, PJM Interconnection, the organization that oversees wholesale electricity markets in Pennsylvania and 12 other states, filed a request with FERC to allow the nuclear power plant and local utility to increase the amount of electricity going to the data center from 300 MW to 480 MW.
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