Friday, 3 January 2025
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The agreement to supply an estimated 10 million MWh over the contract’s ten-year term to 80 federal facilities is part of over USD1 billion in combined contracts awarded to Constellation by the General Services Administration (GSA) to supply power to more than 13 government agencies and perform energy savings and conservation measures at five GSA-owned facilities. The contract is set to begin April.
The GSA, which provides centralised procurement and shared services for the US federal government, said the purchase – a portion of which is “bundled CFE” (carbon pollution-free electricity) – will increase resilience and reliability for federal agencies while protecting against price increases.
“This historic procurement locks in a cost-competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy over a 10-year period, accelerating progress toward a carbon-free energy future while protecting taxpayers against future price hikes,” GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said. “We’re demonstrating how the federal government can join major corporate clean energy buyers in spurring new nuclear energy capacity and ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy for everyone.”
The procurement covers the supply of electricity to federal facilities in the territory of regional transmission operator PJM Interconnection, which extends over portions of eleven mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. Facilities to be supplied with energy include the Architect of the Capitol, the GSA, the Social Security Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the US Mint, the US Railroad Retirement Board, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Federal Reserve System, the National Park Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The procurement agreement will see GSA purchase 2.4 million MWh of nuclear capacity added by Constellation via licence extensions and uprates (together with the associated Energy Attribute Certificates) over the life of the 10-year contract. “Together with CFE already on the electrical grid, the purchase will enable the agencies covered in the procurement to transition to 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030,” GSA said.
The US federal government’s more than 300,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles make it the nation’s largest energy consumer. The Federal Sustainability Plan aims to achieve net-zero emissions for federal operations by 2050 by transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, energy efficient buildings and CFE, with the government seeking to transition to 100% CFE by 2030, at least half of which will be locally supplied clean energy to meet 24/7 hourly-matched demand.
Changing times
Three Mile Island unit 1 is to reopen as the Crane Clean Energy Centre (Image: NRC/Exelon)
“For many decades, Constellation’s nuclear fleet has provided carbon-free, reliable, American-made energy to millions of families and institutions,” Constellation President and CEO Joe Dominguez said. “Frustratingly, however, nuclear energy was excluded from many corporate and government sustainable energy procurements. Not anymore. This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed. Under this agreement, the United States government joins Microsoft and other entities to support continued investment in reliable nuclear energy that will allow Constellation to relicense and extend the lives of these critical assets. In combination with the Crane restart announced previously, Constellation and its partners will add approximately 1100 MW of 24/7 clean energy by 2028, enough energy to power over one million homes.”
In September, Constellation signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft that will see Three Mile Island unit 1, which shut down in 2019, restarted as the Crane Clean Energy Centre. GSA said its procurement is “modelled on the state-of-the-art long-term CFE procurement methods pioneered by large private-sector corporate clean energy buyers”.
In mid-December, Constellation announced a new retail pilot programme in Washington, DC to allow consumers to power their homes with 100% nuclear energy in a US ‘first’. The programme, which the company plans to expand to additional markets over 2025, will match 100% of these customers’ electricity usage with Emission Free Energy Certificates generated at Constellation’s nuclear-powered clean energy centres in the PJM.
