Dive Brief:
- Constellation Energy on Tuesday announced a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google supporting the addition of 890 MW of new nuclear generation, to be added through uprates of 11 existing units in the PJM Interconnection. The units are located at a half dozen locations in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, with the first uprate expected online in 2028.
- Along with the nuclear deal — which will be backed by $4.3 billion in new investment by Constellation — the two companies also entered into a 15-year supply agreement for another 2,700 MW across the PJM market.
- The announcement today follows a similar 690-MW deal Constellation struck with Amazon last week, centered around a $3-billion, 190-MW expansion of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland. That new capacity is expected to come online between 2030 and 2032.
Dive Insight:
The deal with Google is a “direct response” to PJM’s Bring Your Own Power proposal, and aligns with the White House’s ratepayer protection pledge, Constellation said in a statement.
PJM Interconnection is short about 6.8 GW of new capacity, and is struggling to find resources as data center demand rises. The grid operator will delay a planned reliability backstop procurement auction following the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Sept. 29 decision to only partly approve it.
"Preserving and expanding the output of the existing nuclear fleet and developing new clean generation is critical to meeting our nation's growing energy needs," Constellation Chairman, President and CEO Joe Dominguez said in a statement. The deal with Google can “serve as a model for how technology companies and the energy industry can work together ... in a way that delivers grid-wide benefits for all, funded by private entities."
The Google-Constellation deal will incorporate operational load-shaping and demand-response capabilities to reduce power consumption during grid stress, the companies said. Across six nuclear sites, the agreement is expected to help sustain roughly 4,400 existing jobs and create approximately 7,200 temporary construction jobs.
Shares of Constellation were up almost 14% in morning trading.
The deal calls for deploying Google Cloud and AI across energy operations, with Constellation building Gemini Enterprise agentic workflows “directly into its core operations,” according to the companies’ announcement. Under an expanded five-year technology agreement, Constellation and Google will utilize AI for site selection, power flow modeling, permitting and interconnection planning, generation optimization and infrastructure security.
“By pairing commercial investments in nuclear uprates with advanced Google technologies, this agreement supports the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure,” they said.
