When PJM Interconnection updated its projections to say the regional power grid will need an additional 300,000 gigawatt hours of electricity to meet annual demand by 2039, alarm bells sounded in my mind. That figure exceeds the total of what is already produced in Pennsylvania each year.
Pennsylvania is the second-largest energy producer in the nation, but for years we have failed to take full advantage of our capabilities related to the nuclear industry.
I represent southern Dauphin County, where, in Londonderry Township, Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 had a generating capacity of 837 megawatts (when operating at full capacity) before it shut down in 2019 due to economic conditions. I advocated back then for legislative fixes to keep the plant operational and watched with a sickening combination of frustration and dread as the General Assembly failed to act.
Constellation Energy Corp.’s recent announcement that Unit 1 will resume production as early as 2028 starts to right the earlier wrong.
Microsoft Corp. set out to find a carbon-free source of power to accommodate cutting-edge technology, particularly data centers and the artificial intelligence incorporated within them. It signed a 20-year agreement to purchase all power produced by Unit 1, which will be rebranded as Crane Clean Energy Center in tribute to the late Chris Crane, a leader within the nuclear power industry.
Restarting Unit 1 will translate into 600 direct jobs at the plant and another 2,800 indirect jobs, meaning damage wrought on the economy within the 106th District can start to heal. The project will generate more than $3.6 billion in tax revenue. Where I live, charities will be the recipient of over $1 million in philanthropy.
Dauphin County is on track to experience almost $11 billion in economic impacts over the next 24 years. This is a game changer positioning communities within the 106th District for a strong economic future.
Today’s nuclear power is produced under heavy regulation, thorough inspection and detailed oversight. It is a modernized, safe process that little resembles the conditions experienced during 1979’s accident in the long-shuttered (and separately owned) Unit 2 on Three Mile Island.
Crane Clean Energy Center will produce about 7,000 gigawatt hours of power per year regardless of whether the sun is shining or wind is blowing. This is how we add baseload power to the grid to accommodate the projected demands, doing so with domestically produced energy that safeguards our national security interests.
Data centers are on track to soon consume up to 9% of U.S. electricity generation, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. I serve as a co-chair of the bipartisan, bicameral Pennsylvania Nuclear Energy Caucus to, in large part, ensure the Commonwealth can meet the needs of technological innovators, major employers and the business community as a whole.
The caucus serves to ensure the four active nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania are supported and operated with legislative guiderails, not barriers. It also will seek updates from Constellation as it brings Crane Clean Energy Center online to make it the fifth.
Recent polling indicates seven in 10 Pennsylvanians support nuclear power as a source of reliable, carbon-free energy. Count me among the biggest supporters of what reinvigorated nuclear production will mean for Dauphin County, Pennsylvania and the nation.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Jennifer Fitch
717.260.6563
jfitch@pahousegop.com