Susquehanna Nuclear LLC, the owner and operator of the 2.5GW Susquehanna steam electric station, has filed a petition in the Fifth Circuit court seeking a review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) order rejecting an expanded interconnection service agreement (ISA) at the power plant.
The petition at the Fifth Circuit—which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi—challenges an October ruling by FERC of the ISA. The agreement would have supported an expanded colocated load at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center connected to the 2.5GW plant in Pennsylvania, enabling it to serve the data center behind the meter.
The proposal aimed to revise an ISA involving PJM, the regional grid operator Susquehanna Nuclear, which owns the power plant, and transmission owner PPL Corp. The amendment would have boosted the data center shared power demand from 300MW to 480MW.
FERC initially accepted a PJM-filed ISA in 2015, which was amended in February 2023 to add 150MW of colocated load. However, following AWS' acquisition of the 960MW Cumulus data center from Talen Energy, FERC rejected a further amendment submitted in June and updated in September to increase the load capacity.
In June, utilities AEP Ohio and Exelon filed a complaint against the ISA, arguing the proposed interconnection security agreement didn’t fit the current service class models, was poorly explained from an engineering point of view, and would result in AWS using the grid but not paying the required fees, pushing up costs for other customers.
In rejecting the amended proposal, FERC stated that PJM had not provided sufficient justification for the nonstandard provisions that would allow a “unique” arrangement for the data center.
FERC members determined that the ISA could potentially raise public power bills and affect the grid's reliability.
In response, Talen Energy requested that FERC rehear the proposed ISA. The company stated: "With only a few cursory paragraphs of flawed analysis, the (FERC) erroneously rejected a privately negotiated agreement that was supported by all signatories and, in so doing, damaged US economic and national security interests."
Talen contended that the private sector would fund any upgrades. The company also claimed that since the data center is not connected to the broader grid, it would not cause cost-shifting and reliability issues.