Google signs a deal to squeeze 890 MW more out of Constellation's nuclear plants

The upgrades: Google is financing physical and digital upgrades at six operating nuclear plants across Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The money will let Constellation upgrade 11 of its nuclear reactors, Google says.

The power: before the end of 2032, the projects will add 890 MW of firm, 24/7 clean power to the PJM grid. That's roughly the equivalent of adding an entirely new large reactor, according to Google.

The grid: PJM spans 13 states across the industrial Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern US and serves 67 million Americans.

The jobs: Google says the work will sustain roughly 4,400 existing jobs and support about 7,200 new construction jobs.

The AI part: Constellation will deploy Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise agentic workflows across its core operations. The goal is to speed up uprate planning, streamline construction and optimize plant output.

It's a way to get more power out of a reactor that's already running.

A nuclear uprate modernizes turbines, steam generators and digital control systems to boost the power output of an existing reactor, Google explains.

Why it's faster: Google says the 890 MW will arrive "years quicker" than building a new reactor from the ground up, with significant cost savings for the system. Brand-new reactors can take a decade or longer to get permitted and built, Bloomberg reported, citing a source.

"As electricity demand grows in the U.S., the fastest new megawatt is often the one that can be provided by existing infrastructure," Google wrote.

There's room to grow. Nuclear power generates nearly 20% of US electricity, and the country has 94 operating reactors, according to Google.

Why long contracts matter: Google says its long-term commitment gives the projects the certainty they need to stand up supply chains, invest in a skilled workforce and secure the most efficient sources of capital.

Google says it does.

By serving as the anchor customer for the uprate projects, Google says it provides the long-term revenue certainty Constellation needs to invest in the upgrades, "while ensuring other grid customers bear none of the associated costs."

Google didn't disclose financial terms. Before the announcement, Bloomberg reported that Google was close to a nuclear power deal with Constellation valued at $1 billion or more.

With this deal, Google says it has now enabled more than 1.5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity for the US energy system, by increasing the output of existing reactors and bringing dormant plants back online.

The national goal: the US Department of Energy has set a target of enabling 5 GW of domestic nuclear expansion by 2030 through uprates and restarts of the existing fleet. Google says its agreements are expected to enable nearly 25% of that goal by the end of the decade.

Google listed its other nuclear projects:

• Georgia: an agreement with Georgia Power to support uprates across four reactor units, which Google expects to enable about $900 million in ratepayer benefits. Benzinga reported the deal covers the Vogtle and Hatch plants.
• Iowa: a collaboration with NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center, bringing more than 600 MW of carbon-free power online.
• Tennessee: a partnership with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority to deploy advanced nuclear reactors and reinvest in Oak Ridge.

Google isn't Constellation's only big tech customer.

Amazon: on September 30, Amazon signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for 690 MW from Constellation's Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland, Benzinga reported. The deal is expected to support more than $3 billion in investment, including about 190 MW of new capacity coming online between 2030 and 2032.

"This agreement demonstrates how private investment can strengthen critical energy infrastructure," Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said of the Amazon deal.

Calvert Cliffs is a 1,790 MW plant and Maryland's only nuclear power plant, supplying about 80% of the state's clean electricity, according to the companies. Amazon's long-term commitment is also expected to support Constellation's effort to renew the plant's operating license for another 20 years. The two companies also signed a separate retail electricity supply agreement covering Amazon's operations across PJM, Benzinga reported.

Earlier this year: Constellation signed long-term power purchase agreements in the second quarter for roughly 920 MW of nuclear power, the American Nuclear Society reported. One customer was Walmart, which agreed to buy 176 MW from Constellation's Dresden plant in Illinois.

Those contracts run 15 to 20 years and start between 2029 and 2032. About 890 MW of that 920 MW comes from existing generation, with the rest from a planned 30 MW uprate at Dresden.

The stock: Constellation shares rose about 3% in premarket trading Tuesday on the Amazon deal and reports of the Google talks, Investing.com reported. The day before, shares had come under pressure after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission put a hold on a PJM capacity procurement submission over cost-allocation concerns.

Other buyers: Meta and Microsoft have also signed nuclear power agreements for their data centers, Benzinga noted.

Tech companies need constant power for data centers, and wind and solar output depends on weather and time of day, Finimize noted in its summary of Bloomberg's report.

Dominguez has argued existing generation is the answer for now. On Constellation's second-quarter earnings call, he called existing power plants the "bedrock" of "this early phase of the data economy," according to the American Nuclear Society.

"Otherwise, we'd be waiting for every data center, for every megawatt to be interconnected and built," he said. "If that's the case, we might as well hand over the keys to China."

"We're never going to build this economy if the outcome is going to be we've got to wait for new power plants to be built before we can connect any data center," Dominguez added.

Constellation's nuclear fleet produced 44,160 gigawatt-hours in the second quarter and ran at a 93% capacity factor, excluding its shares of two jointly owned plants, the American Nuclear Society reported.

Constellation is also working to restart the reactor formerly known as Three Mile Island-1, now called the Crane Clean Energy Center, in the second half of 2027, according to the American Nuclear Society.

• If you live in the PJM region: more power is coming to your grid by 2032, and Google says you won't pay for these upgrades.
• If you follow AI: the race for data center power is shifting toward squeezing more out of existing plants, because new ones take too long.
• If you care about clean energy: uprates add carbon-free power without new sites, but they're a bridge, not a replacement for building new capacity.