Constellation’s $4.3 billion Google-backed plan will add 890 megawatts, with initial power expected as early as 2028.
Technology companies are securing additional output from existing US nuclear reactors, but the pool of available upgrades is narrowing, Bloomberg reported in its Energy Daily newsletter.
Constellation Energy plans to spend $4.3 billion upgrading 11 reactors to add 890 megawatts, backed by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Google. Initial output is expected as early as 2028.
The deal followed Constellation’s agreement to upgrade a Maryland plant and supply Amazon with 190 megawatts. Walmart and Meta have made similar arrangements, Bloomberg reported.
Reactor upgrades, known as uprates, can increase output through changes to turbines, generators, transformers, pumps or measurement equipment, providing additional capacity before new reactors can be built.
Bloomberg Intelligence identified only one potential uprate in the PJM grid whose output was not committed: a planned 112-megawatt increase at New Jersey’s Salem plant, majority-owned by Public Service Enterprise Group.
Constellation spokesperson Paul Adams said the Google agreement had committed the company’s remaining uprate capacity. Bloomberg noted that new conventional US nuclear capacity remains years away.
