FERC Faces Hurdles Amid Push for Nuclear to Meet AI Power Demand

As the growth of data centers make them one of several “critical loads” driving the country’s need for reliable power, federal energy regulators have grappled with one potential solution: linking data centers to nearby nuclear plants.

Co-location, a process that would allow data centers to get electricity directly from power plants, was part of Amazon Web Services’ agreement to purchase a data center campus near the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania. But the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected grid operator PJM Interconnection’s proposal to increase the amount of power used at the site in a 2-1 vote on Nov. ...