The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Constellation’s request to transfer 760 MW of capacity interconnection rights from another Pennsylvania power plant to the former Three Mile Island unit 1.
The reactor, now called the Crane Clean Energy Center, is being prepared for a return to service in 2027.
Separately, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued for public comment its draft finding that restarting operations at the site would have no significant environmental impact.
Constellation announced in 2024 that it planned to restart the pressurized water reactor, which was shut down in 2019.
The company later filed an interconnection request with regional grid operator PJM to allow Crane to add 835 MW of emissions-free electricity to the grid.
To help support the 2027 restart schedule, Constellation filed a waiver request with FERC on March 31. The request sought permission to transfer capacity rights from Eddystone, a six-unit, dual-fuelled plant in Pennsylvania.
Two 380 MW units at Eddystone, known as Eddystone 3 and 4, had been scheduled to close last year.
However, they have remained online beyond their planned retirement date to support grid reliability under emergency orders issued by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
FERC has now granted the waiver, allowing Constellation to remove the Eddystone units from Capacity Resource status and make their capacity interconnection rights available for transfer. The decision was issued by FERC on June 1.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/long-idled-us-nuclear-unit-gets-major-approval-to-return-835-mw-to-grid?shem=dsdf,sharefoc,agadiscoversdl,,sh/x/discover/m1/4
