Baltimore-based Constellation, the nation’s largest operator of nuclear power plants, has been awarded more than $1 billion in federal contracts to supply power to government agencies and lead conservation measures.

Constellation, which produces electricity at power plants mainly in Maryland, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, will supply electricity to 13 agencies for a decade beginning this year.

Under a single, $840 million contract with the the General Services Administration, Constellation New Energy will supply more than 1 million megawatt hours annually. Some power will be generated as result of investments Constellation will make to increase plant output.

The energy procurement is the largest in GSA history and its first long-term, multi-agency purchase of electricity. The federal government is the nation’s largest energy consumer.

The contracts signal a shift toward greater government support for investments in nuclear energy, said Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s CEO and president. He said Constellation’s nuclear fleet has powered homes and institutions for decades, but nuclear energy has typically been excluded from corporate and government energy procurements.

“This agreement is another powerful example of how things have changed,” Dominguez said in a statement Thursday.

Robin Carnahan, administrator of the GSA, said the agreements will lock in a “cost-competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy,” for a decade, protect taxpayers against future price hikes and contribute to a “carbon-free energy future” by spurring new nuclear energy capacity.

Constellation said the contracts will allow it to relicense and extend the lives of some of its plants, adding about 1,100 megawatts of carbon-free energy in the next three years, enough to power more than one million homes.

The energy will be supplied to locations the agencies own or operate in Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Agencies include the Architect of the Capitol, GSA, the Social Security Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Mint, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Federal Reserve System, the National Park Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority,

Constellation, which also supplies natural gas, also secured a $172 million contract to lead energy savings and conservation measures at five GSA-owned facilities in Washington and College Park.

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