Talen Energy has requested that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rehear its proposed interconnection service agreement (ISA) for the Susquehanna nuclear power station in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.
The ISA, which would have supported an expanded colocated load at an Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center connected to the 2.5GW plant, enabling it to serve the data center behind the meter, was rejected at the start of November.
In its rehearing request, 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 contends that FERC failed to apply the correct legal standard in its decision-making process, consider all of the recorded evidence, and explain why the ISA was subsequently rejected.
FERC initially accepted a PJM-filed ISA in 2015. However, following Talen Energy's sale of the 960MW Cumulus data center to AWS, PJM submitted a further amendment in June, updated in September, to increase the colocated load capacity from 300MW to 480MW. FERC rejected this subsequent amendment.
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 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.
