Google contracts 3,590 megawatts from Constellation, a quarter of it nuclear uprates

Google has contracted for 3,590 megawatts of electricity from Constellation Energy, the companies said on Tuesday, with nuclear uprates making up about a quarter of the supply. The package is two agreements on the PJM grid, the largest in the United States. Constellation said it will invest more than 4.3 billion dollars, in part to upgrade plants. The first uprated unit is expected to deliver power in 2028.

The nuclear piece is a 20-year power purchase agreement for 890 megawatts from several Constellation reactors that will be modified to produce more electricity from existing cores. Eleven units in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are in that set. The second piece is a 15-year supply agreement for 2,700 megawatts that is not tied to a named plant. Google said that block gives Constellation long-term revenue certainty for operating stations.

What an uprate is, and what it is not

An uprate is extra output from a reactor that already has a licence, not a new plant. The 890 megawatts are the increment the companies have contracted, not the full output of the eleven units. Delivery in 2028 is the date for the first upgraded plant, not for the whole 3,590. The 2,700 megawatt block can be served from the existing fleet. It does not, on the text of the announcement, require a new reactor to be poured.

Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of energy and power, said the company was investing in power that brings new capacity to the grid. The new capacity in this deal is the uprate slice. The 2,700 megawatts are a claim on plants that already run. Data-centre load on PJM has been the pressure behind a series of these contracts. A 3,590 megawatt contract is on the scale of several large gas plants, contracted to one buyer.

Where the money sits

Constellation's 4.3 billion dollars is the capital line attached to the arrangement. The companies did not publish a price per megawatt-hour. They did publish duration: 20 years on the nuclear increment, 15 years on the unnamed block. A 20-year offtake is what lets a utility spend on an uprate whose fuel and outage costs are recovered over a period longer than a single rate case. Google is the offtaker. PJM is the grid. The states named for the eleven units are Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The date that tests the release

The first electricity from an upgraded plant is due in 2028. Between now and then the contract is a signature and a capital plan. If the first unit delivers on that timetable, the 890 megawatt figure becomes metered output. If it slips, the 2,700 megawatt block is the part that can still be served from plants that already turn. That split, uprate versus existing fleet, is the fact the announcement actually contains.