Meta platforms said on Tuesday that it concluded an agreement with Constellation Energy to keep one of the reactors of the Illinois aid programs for 20 years, in the first such agreement with a nuclear power plant. Why this is important, large technical companies are looking for electricity as US power demand for the first time in two decades rises from artificial intelligence and data centers. The agreement will help keep the Clinton Clean Energy Center of Constellation, which may have been forced to close after the expiry in 2027 of an Illinois taxpayer-funded zero-emission credit program that allows benefits for generating power that is virtually free of carbon emissions. It depends on the US Nuclear Regulation Commission that renews the plant’s license after the constellation applied last year to renew it through 2047. Meta’s power purchase will replace the Illinois support and assist with the licensing and operations. The agreement can serve as a model for large technical companies to support existing nuclear plants, while also planning to stimulate data centers with new core and other energy sources. Constellation Energy Shares rose 5.7% to $ 330.93 in the morning trading. According to the numbers, financial details of the agreement have not been unveiled, but such prolonged power purchase agreements tend to work up to a billion billion dollars. The agreement also enables Constellation to expand Clinton, which has a capacity of 1.121 megawatts, by 30 MW. The plant gives the equivalent of about 800,000 US homes. Urvi Parekh, head of Global Energy at Meta, said: “One of the things we hear very acutely about utility functions is that they want certainty that power plants that work today will continue to work.” Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said: “We certainly have conversations with other clients, not just in Illinois, but really across the country, to step in and do what Meta did, which essentially gives us a backup so we can make the investments needed to refute these assets and make them work.” Bobby Wendell, an official at a unit of the International Brotherhood or Electrical Workers, said the agreement would provide a ‘stable work environment’ for workers at the plant. Evercore ISI analyst Nicholas Amicucci considers the agreement as ‘first of many’ following President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at raising the US core ability. Big Tech Power offerings have announced independent power producers such as Constellation that the largest power transactions in US history have been announced over the past year, as AI data centers are expected to use the US electricity consumption in 2025 and 2026. Constellation announced last year that it has an agreement to serve a reactor at the three mile Island core plant to serve Microsoft Data Center. The reactor, suggested for a restart, requires different approvals. Fishing Corp. and NRG Energy have also announced major planned acquisitions in recent months. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Additional Reporting by Laila Kearney and Pooja Menon; Editing by Leslie Adler, Vijay Kishore, Alexandra Hudson)
Meta enters ‘core’ arena? Here’s what you need to know about the power agreement with Constellation Energy | Today news
