At a glance
- The two companies own the plant jointly, and its installed capacity is 2,280 MW.
- PSEG Power would take 112 MW of the uprate and Constellation would own the remainder, according to the presentation.
- For allocators modeling PSEG Power's nuclear output, the uprate is a 112-MW addition, about 3% on the roughly 3,760-MW fleet the presentation cites.
PSEG Power and Constellation Energy plan a 200-MW uprate at the Salem nuclear plant in southern New Jersey, according to an earnings presentation by Public Service Enterprise Group, PSEG Power's parent. The two companies own the plant jointly, and its installed capacity is 2,280 MW.
PSEG Power would take 112 MW of the uprate and Constellation would own the remainder, according to the presentation. The uprate would support a recently announced nuclear-focused power purchase agreement with Google. Utility Dive first reported the filing and the uprate plan.
For allocators modeling PSEG Power's nuclear output, the uprate is a 112-MW addition, about 3% on the roughly 3,760-MW fleet the presentation cites. That fleet ran at a 95.5% capacity factor in the third quarter, up from 92.4% in the same period a year earlier, which suggests the incremental megawatts would land on units already running at high utilization rather than on underused capacity.
Salem 1 is in an extended refueling outage after a visual inspection last month found the thermal shield inside the reactor vessel degraded, PSEG said in its quarterly SEC filing. PSEG said further testing is ongoing and that the outage's impact will depend on the timing and results of the inspection and necessary repairs. Because the plant is jointly owned, the repair work and the uprate land on the same two balance sheets.
Beyond Salem
PSEG continues to explore potential deals with data center developers around PSEG Power's roughly 3.8-GW nuclear fleet, according to Ralph LaRossa, PSEG's chair, president and chief executive. "PSEG Power is continuing to develop terms with large load entities for contracting arrangements involving existing nuclear production, future nuclear upgrades and other generation opportunities, similar to recently announced power purchase agreements in the PJM region and specifically in New Jersey," LaRossa said on the earnings call. Constellation, the Salem co-owner, carries its own capital commitments: the Department of Energy committed $10.1 billion in loans to Constellation and Alliant, as Private Infrastructure Daily previously reported.
LaRossa also addressed FERC's rejection of key portions of PJM Interconnection's proposed plan for interconnecting data centers and other large loads, saying it "reinforces that the focus has shifted to the states to address retail curtailment and cost issues associated with large load customers."
Reported by the Energy Transition desk from Utility Dive and Private Infrastructure Daily archive. Published . Corrections