Constellation announced in 2024 its plans to restart the pressurised water reactor, which closed down in 1999, and last year filed an interconnection request with regional transmission operator PJM to allow the plant – now called the Crane Clean Energy Center – to add its 835 megawatts of emissions-free power to the grid. Although PJM approved a request to reconnect the plant to the grid from 2027, the grid operator had also determined that it could take until after 2030 to fully complete the transmission upgrades needed to safely deliver all of the unit’s power to the grid.
To facilitate Crane’s 2027 restart, Constellation filed a waiver request with FERC on 31 March to allow it to transfer capacity rights from Eddystone, a six-unit, dual-fuelled plant in Pennsylvania. Two 380 MW units – Eddystone 3 and 4 – had been scheduled for closure last year, but have been kept online beyond their planned retirement date to ensure grid reliability under a series of emergency orders issued by US Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Constellation has argued that the Eddystone units can still operate and meet DOE orders without its capacity interconnection rights and should be thought of as an “energy resource” and not a “capacity resource”. (An “energy resource” is not allowed to participate in PJM’s capacity market, while a Capacity Resource designation allows a generator to meet capacity obligations through PJM’s capacity market).
FERC has now granted Constellation’s request for the waiver, meaning the company can remove the Eddystone units from so-called Capacity Resource status and make the units’ capacity interconnection rights available for transfer.
FERC found that the requested waiver would allow for the transfer of capacity interconnection rights between the Eddystone Units and Crane, which could “potentially increase Crane’s interim deliverability and enable Crane to be fully operational before December 31, 2030”, and also found that “granting the waiver will not have undesirable consequences, such as harming third parties”.
The on 1 June.
Public comment
On 8 June, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued for public comment a draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact – known as a FONSI – from its evaluation of the “reasonably foreseeable” environmental effects from the proposed reauthorisation of power operations at the plant.
At the time of its closure in 2019, Three Mile Island unit 1 had a renewed operating licence that was valid until 2034. Constellation has asked the NRC to approve an exemption request and three licence amendment requests to support allowing the resumption of power operations up to the previous expiration date of the plant’s licence. It has also previously said it will look to extend operations beyond that, to 2054.
Based on the findings of its environmental review, which are documented in the draft environmental assessment and draft finding of no significant impact, “the NRC staff has made the preliminary determination that the proposed actions will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment. Therefore, the NRC staff has made the preliminary determination that it will not prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed actions and that a FONSI is warranted”, the Commission .
The NRC will make its final determination after considering comments on the documents received during the 30-day public comment period which runs until 8 July.
