An aerial photo of Three Mile Island. (Photo: Constellation)
In a first quarter earnings call Monday, executives at Constellation said they should know in June or July the status of a request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to transfer capacity interconnection rights from the company’s Eddystone gas- and-oil-powered plant in Pennsylvania to Crane nuclear power plant (formerly Three Mile Island-1).
In late March, Constellation asked FERC to transfer those rights to facilitate the restart of Crane as early as next year.
Eddystone is a six-unit gas- and oil-powered plant that was originally scheduled for closure in 2025. However, a series of orders from the Department of Energy has kept Eddystone operational past its original end date. Constellation’s chief external affairs and growth officer David Dardis said Eddystone could continue to operate and meet the federal orders without its capacity interconnection rights.
The status of the restart of Middletown, Pa.-based Crane has garnered attention this spring after an analysis from electric grid provider PJM suggested the plant may not be connected to the grid until 2031. It continued to be a topic of interest during Monday’s earnings call, as CEO Joseph Dominguez answered questions during the call and said Crane will be connected to the grid before 2031.
“It’ll come on sooner,” said Dominguez. “What we're talking about is getting full capacity credit for the asset. I don't want anybody to be under the misconception the plant won't start sooner.”
Along with Palisades in Michigan and Duane Arnold in Iowa, Crane is one of three decommissioned U.S. nuclear power plants in the process of returning to operational status. The restart of Crane is backed by a $1 billion loan from the Department of Energy and is boosted by the 20-year power purchase agreement Constellation and Microsoft signed in 2024.
More Constellation news: In addition to the Crane update, executives said Constellation had submitted plans to add 5 gigawatts of new capacity to PJM, some of which includes nuclear uprates. Two weeks ago the electric grid operator said that during the first application process in four years 811 developers applied to add new generation to the grid; the proposed additions are for a total of 220 gigawatts.
Executives said the near-term nuclear uprates include its Braidwood and Byron nuclear plants in Illinois. In 2023, Constellation announced it was investing $800 million in new equipment to raise their combined output. Multiple news outlets have reported this spring that the first phase of the Byron upgrades has been completed.
