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Constellation Energy is pursuing a new kind of bilateral contract with large customers that combines clean baseload power generation — likely nuclear — with other capacity resources such as battery storage, demand response and new generation, executives said this week.
The company is calling the offering “Peak+” and bills it as a simpler, cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to new gas-fired generation for hyperscalers and other large power consumers.
“Peak+ is going to be broadly defined as bringing capacity solutions plus existing clean and reliable generation,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s chairman, president and CEO, said on a Monday quarterly earnings call with investors and stock analysts.
Constellation is introducing the hybrid contracts as construction delays, cost overruns, interconnection delays and long-term fuel-price uncertainty present material risks for power plant developers, he said. He also pointed to the “political tilt in this last election,” which he said raises the specter of stronger federal regulation on carbon emissions affecting fossil fuel-powered plants.
“Constellation Peak+ gives us a new way to pair the existing fleet with incremental capacity,” he said. “We could add batteries and generation supply at our plants given the vast amount of land that we own around the plants.”
By the numbers: Constellation Energy Q3 2026
$12.65/share
Estimated full-year earnings in 2026 (midpoint), up from original estimate of $11.50/share (midpoint)
91 million MWh/year
Constellation “clean baseload fleet” output covered by long-term contracts by 2032
1,165 MW
Nuclear uprate capacity covered by long-term agreements, at ~$4.3B total cost
97.2%
Constellation nuclear fleet’s capacity factor in the third quarter
A slide in Constellation’s third-quarter investor presentation showed Peak+ pricing $20/MWh to $50/MWh higher than the “floor” set by the federal production tax credit for nuclear power but lower than the $110/MWh to $130/MWh levelized cost of power from new-build combined-cycle gas turbines in the PJM Interconnection’s eastern region — where much of Constellation’s nuclear capacity sits — by 2032, assuming a $3,000/kW build cost.
The production tax credit pays nuclear generating units up to $15/MWh when revenues fall between $26/MWh and $44.75/MWh, Constellation says.
The company signed its first Peak+ customer for a 20-year agreement for 270 MW of “unit-contingent energy, capacity and attributes from our existing nuclear fleet,” according to a press release. Dominguez declined to identify the customer.
He said he still expects some customers will pursue new large power plants or off-grid solutions. However, pairing “simpler and less risky capacity solutions with our large volume of clean energy is a compelling solution,” he said.
At about 55 GW, the Baltimore-based independent power producer says it has the largest combined fleet of nuclear, natural gas and geothermal generation in the U.S.
About 22 GW of that is nuclear, much of it in the capacity-constrained PJM Interconnection.
The company has announced more than 1 GW of hyperscaler-backed capacity expansions at existing nuclear power plants in recent weeks, including an 890-MW agreement with Google and a 190-MW deal with Amazon.
“I know that there’s been some chatter that once we sold the [nuclear power] uprates, our ability to contract the existing fleet would somehow be exhausted — it is not,” Dominguez said.
In addition to the new Peak+ contracts, the company has “not finished exploring uprates at plants,” he said.
Dominguez also said the company’s planned nuclear restart at the site formerly known as Three Mile Island — now renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center — is on track for the second half of 2027 with the first fuel assemblies and transformers are on site.
Separately, Constellation announced another addition to its non-nuclear generating fleet, which grew dramatically in the past year following its $16.4 billion combination with gas-heavy Calpine.
Constellation said in September that it would pay Shell Energy North America $715 million to buy the Rhode Island State Energy Center, a 609-MW combined-cycle gas-fired power plant in the ISO New England wholesale market. RISEC will run on a merchant basis, Constellation said.
Source: www.utilitydive.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.
