CERAWEEK-Constellation executive says grid operator told company Three Mile Island can't connect until 2031

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. grid operator PJM has told Constellation Energy that the former Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania likely won't be able to connect to the grid until 2031, four years later than planned, the company said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston on Thursday.

Constellation is working to resume operations at the nuclear power plant, which is being renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, to feed Microsoft data centers.

The company will be ready to produce electricity from the plant by its 2027 goal, and it is speaking with grid operator PJM Interconnection to reduce the timeline, said David Dardis, chief external affairs and growth officer at Constellation.

Constellation, the country's biggest independent power producer, announced in 2024 that it had contracted with Microsoft to reopen the nuclear power plant. No fully shut nuclear power plant has ever been restarted, but as demand rises from Big Tech data centers and the electrification of buildings and transportation, three U.S. plants are currently in that process.