Talen Energy is suing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its order blocking an Amazon data center from getting power directly from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.
Houston-based Talen Energy filed the lawsuit Jan. 16 in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. It comes less than a month after FERC denied the company’s rehearing of the Nov. 1 order.
FERC’s 2-1 vote on the order raised concerns that the agency would similarly deny other proposals to co-locate data centers at nuclear plants. The two Republican commissioners opposed Talen’s plan, while then-Chair Willie Phillips dissented and the other two Democratic commissioners abstained from the vote.
The proposed interconnection agreement polarized parties involved in the case and drew opposition from utilities such as Exelon and AEP. Mark Christie, the current chair of FERC who was then a commissioner, stressed at the time that he opposed the proposal not on principle but because grid operator PJM “failed to meet its burden of proof” for an amended interconnection agreement.