The Department of Energy last week ordered the Eddystone Generating Station, just south of Philadelphia, to extend its operations for the summer — just one day before its scheduled retirement.
Regional grid operator PJM Interconnection has testified to the U.S. House of Representatives in recent months that the mid-Atlantic region is facing unprecedented energy demand in the wake of data centers coming online, increased electrification of certain sectors and other factors.
MORE: Protesters call for the release of Philly asylum seekerEddystone Generating Station, located in Eddystone along the Delaware River about 20 minutes south of Center City, is a six-unit, 820-megawatt power plant that has been in operation since 1960. The station uses either natural gas or oil depending on market conditions.
Constellation Energy, the owner of the plant, retired the first two units of the plant in 2011 and 2012, respectively, and requested in late 2023 that units 3 and 4, which together produce 760 megawatts of energy, to go offline on May 31, 2025.
PJM approved the request in Feb. 2024, stating the retirement did not pose risks to reliability for energy customers.
However, in recent testimonies to the U.S. House of Representatives committees on energy, PJM executives have warned that the grid, which covers 67 million people across 13 states, faces unprecedented demand over the next few months due to the development of large data centers, the electrification of transportation and heating sectors from industrial growth in the region.
Manu Asthana, president and CEO of PJM, said the rate of power plant retirements is out-pacing the rate of new generation construction and recommended reversing some of the retirements the operator had approved previously.
"PJM believes that the forecasted increase in demand is an 'all hands on deck' event, and that we will need all of our resources in order to meet both the opportunity and challenge that this demand increase presents," said Asim Haque, senior vice president of PJM's governmental and member services during his March 5 testimony.
On Friday, the Department of Energy issued an emergency order to PJM and Constellation Energy to keep Eddystone's operations online until at least Aug. 28.
Constellation Energy wrote in a statement that it is "pleased" to work with the department and PJM, and is taking measures to meet the power demand "at this critical time when America must win the AI race," according to the Associated Press.
The company also said it is trying to accelerate the process to bring Three Mile Island's nuclear power plant back online as part of a deal to supply data centers to Microsoft in the next few years.
Philadelphia-based environmental advocacy organization PennFuture expressed its opposition to the DOE's order in a statement that called into question the validity of the energy emergency cited by the department.
"This order extends the operation of these unmaintained and uneconomic fossil fuel plants, which means expensive power at a high pollution output," the statement said. "This significantly harms the health of Pennsylvanians living in nearby environmental justice communities and the environment of Southern Pennsylvania."
