Amazon and Talen Energy have entered into a new power purchase agreement to provide 1,920 megawatts of electricity to Amazon from its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Salem Township, Pa.
Within the new deal, the Houston, Texas based power producing company will provide electricity to global tech company Amazon’s data center campus and operations that will be adjacent to Susquehanna, according to Talen Energy’s Wednesday press release.
It will also explore the opportunities of building a small modular reactor within Talen’s Pennsylvania region and pursue uprate opportunities for the nuclear plant.
The new agreement will be viable through 2042, with options to further extend the duration, Talen said. According to Talen, the power delivery schedule will ramp over time and is expected to achieve full volume no later than 2032, with possibilities to accelerate.
The company said the transaction will decrease its market risk and lower its reliance on federal nuclear production tax credit.
The Susquehanna Steam Electricity Station has a capacity of 2,476 megawatts and has two General Electric boiling water units. Talen operates the plant and owns 90% of it, while Allegheny Electric owns 10% of it.
The new agreement will expand upon a previous agreement between the two companies.
Cumulus Data, a subsidiary to Talen, developed the 960-megawatt data center campus near the Susquehanna power plant. In March 2024, Talen sold the campus to Amazon Web Services.
Nuclear energy continues to be sought out to power data centers as Meta entered into its power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy last week.
“This partnership between Talen Energy and Amazon taps into Pennsylvania’s strengths as a national energy leader and will power the largest economic development project in Commonwealth history – creating good-paying jobs, growing our economy, and ultimately adding more power to the PJM [Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland] energy grid,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) in the press release.
