Talen Energy sues over FERC’s rejection of nuclear-powered data center

By Jeffrey Tomich | 01/29/2025 06:51 AM EST

The lawsuit targets an order that blocked an Amazon data center from connecting to a Pennsylvania power plant.

A data center owned by Amazon Web Services (front right) is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant.

A data center owned by Amazon Web Services (front right) is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on Jan. 14. Ted Shaffrey/AP

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.

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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.

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