FERC decision could clear path for Crane nuclear plant restart
Constellation is waiting on FERC to let Crane inherit Eddystone’s grid rights, a June or July ruling that could keep a 2027 restart alive.
The future of the Crane nuclear restart now rests on one regulatory gate: whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will let Constellation Energy move capacity interconnection rights from Eddystone Units 3 and 4 to the Crane Clean Energy Center, the former Three Mile Island-1 reactor in Middletown and Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania.
That is the request Constellation filed on March 31. It seeks a prospective, limited waiver of tariff provisions so Crane can inherit the grid rights now tied to the Eddystone gas- and oil-fired plant. PJM Interconnection filed comments in docket ER26-2028-000 on April 21, and Constellation executives said on May 11 that they expect a decision in June or July. That timing matters because the ruling is not just paperwork. It is the step that determines whether Crane can move from restart concept to a grid-connected asset on the company’s current schedule.
Constellation’s own message is clear: the company says the transfer is intended to support a restart as early as 2027. Industry coverage has said a favorable FERC order could allow Crane to bid 760 MW into PJM’s next base capacity auction, which begins June 30. If that happens, the project keeps its market path open. If FERC delays, Constellation still faces a harder road to lock in capacity status. If FERC rejects the request, the restart plan would lose a key piece of the interconnection structure that helps make the project financeable and dispatchable on the current timeline.
The company has also pushed back on the idea that the plant must wait years for full grid access. Chief external affairs and growth officer Joseph Dominguez has said Eddystone could keep operating and still satisfy federal orders even without those interconnection rights, underscoring that the real issue is Crane’s market and transmission status. Dominguez has said Constellation is talking about getting full capacity credit for the asset, not waiting for some distant hardware milestone.
That is why the June or July ruling carries more weight than the usual earnings-call theater. Constellation bought TMI Unit 1 in 1999, retired it in 2019 for economic reasons tied to low natural gas prices and the lack of state incentives, and now ties the restart to a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft signed in September 2024. The company says Crane would add about 835 MW of carbon-free power, create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, and generate more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes. Before retirement, the unit had 837 MW of capacity and ran at a 96.3% capacity factor in its last year. The next FERC ruling will decide whether those numbers stay on the page or start becoming a real restart schedule.
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