Constellation Energy Wins Critical FERC Waiver to Accelerate Three Mile Island Restart
On June 1, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a vital regulatory waiver that removes a major obstacle to restarting Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant1, now renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center. The plant is being resurrected by Constellation Energy (CEG) to power Microsoft's (MSFT) massive regional AI data centers under a landmark power purchase agreement2.
Initially, regional grid operator PJM Interconnection had indicated that due to severe interconnection backlogs, the plant would not be permitted to feed power into the grid until 2031. This delay threatened to derail Constellation's commercial timeline. The FERC waiver resolves this by allowing Constellation to transfer Capacity Interconnection Rights (CIRs) from its Eddystone natural gas-fired power plant outside of Philadelphia directly to the Three Mile Island nuclear facility.3 This regulatory fast-track puts Constellation back on its original target to restart the reactor by 2027.
As reported by Reuters:
"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday evening filed a waiver allowing power plant owner Constellation Energy to transfer certain grid rights from its Eddystone natural gas-fired power plant outside of Philadelphia to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant." "By granting the waiver, FERC puts Constellation back on track for its 2027 restart goal, the company said."
Strategic and Financial Context
The FERC ruling represents a massive win for Constellation Energy and the broader "nuclear-to-data-center" theme. Constellation's financial position is exceptionally robust, with revenue growing 63.8% year-over-year to a TTM total of $29.87 billion, and quarterly net income reaching $1.60 billion for the period ending March 31, 2026. The company's recent $16.4 billion acquisition of Calpine and the accelerated Crane restart timeline cement its status as the leading independent clean energy producer in the United States. Despite a recent 18.0% pullback in the stock over the past month, trading at $254.83 with a $91.00 billion market cap, the regulatory breakthrough provides significant long-term visibility for Constellation's contract with Microsoft.
-
An instance of The decades-long nuclear licensing pipeline collapses under the pressure of federal energy mandates. — Federal regulators granted a special grid waiver to bypass multi-year interconnection backlog delays, fast-tracking the nuclear restart to meet critical AI power demands. ↩︎
-
An instance of Scaling artificial intelligence requires technology giants to directly finance the resurrection of nuclear power. — Microsoft's massive energy demand is driving the directly funded restart of the offline Three Mile Island nuclear facility. ↩︎
-
An instance of Grid congestion has replaced code optimization as the primary gatekeeper of artificial intelligence scale. — It shows an emergency transfer of grid rights from a gas plant to a nuclear facility to bypass severe grid interconnection bottlenecks. ↩︎