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PA lawmakers toured the Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1, as Constellation and Microsoft plan to restart the plant by 2027. PHOTO/PAHOUSE
Lawmakers tour Three Mile Island restart
Members of the PA House Energy Committee and the PA House Nuclear Caucus toured the Crane Clean Energy Center Tuesday.
In September of last year, Constellation Energy announced it had signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft with plans to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1, which ceased operations in 2019.
Exelon Generation, which formerly operated Three Mile Island Unit 1, announced in May 2019 that it would officially close the plant. In 2022, Unit 1 was transferred to Constellation Energy.
The unit, which has been renamed Crane Clean Energy, is expected to go back online by the end of 2027.
On the tour, members learned about the history of the plant and the new initiatives by Constellation Energy to bring the facility back online, as well as train and prepare its 750-person permanent workforce.
“Today was a fascinating look at a power source that we need to be discussing and taking seriously,” said the House Energy Committee chair, state Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Phila. “Nuclear has the advantage of being a 24-7, 365 days a year carbon-free source. I was also glad to learn about Constellation Energy’s commitment to safety, their workforce training program, and their community outreach.”
Constellation Energy expects the facility to restore 825 megawatts of electricity to the grid, for which Microsoft has negotiated a power purchase agreement.
CCEC is expected to create 3,400 jobs directly and indirectly. Constellation Energy is fully funding the costs associated with the restart.
“The legislature did a great disservice to Pennsylvania by allowing Three Mile Island to close in 2019,” said state Rep. Tom Mehaffie, R-Dauphin, who represents the 106th Legislative District, where the facility is located. “Thankfully, Constellation and Microsoft are in the process of righting that wrong by investing in this source of reliable, carbon-free energy to strengthen the grid, provide high-quality jobs and restore damage felt within the local economy when the plant shuttered.”
