PPL Corp., Blackstone spend $40.4M on possible Luzerne County power plants

PPL Corporation and Blackstone Infrastructure spent $40.4 million on more than 500 acres in Jenkins, Plains and Salem townships as they evaluate power plants serving Pennsylvania’s rising data-center demand. Phoenix PA Land Holdings LLC paid $27.75 million for more than 400 acres between Interstate 81 and Westminster Road, and $12.66 million for more than 140 acres in Salem Township. The latter property lies between Talen Energy’s Moxie Freedom natural-gas plant and Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear plant. Talen acquired Moxie Freedom in a $3.5 billion transaction last year. Amazon bought Talen’s adjacent Cumulus data center for $650 million in March 2024 and plans a campus of at least 15 buildings. Organized March 7, 2025, using PPL’s 645 Hamilton St., Allentown, address, Phoenix PA Land Holdings lists PPL Executive Vice President and CFO Joseph P. Bergstein Jr. as president. Phoenix Generation LLC was organized the same day with the same officers and governors, but PPL spokesman Ryan Hill said it is not the joint venture’s name. The properties came from BPJI LP and James and Michele Benkinney. PPL and Blackstone announced their generation venture in July 2025. PPL owns 51% and Blackstone 49%. Blackstone, headquartered in New York City, reports more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management. PPL’s May 2026 first-quarter release said the venture was advancing discussions with hyperscalers and pursuing long-term energy supply services agreements. The initiative does not involve regulated subsidiary PPL Electric Utilities; PPL Corporation and Blackstone funded the acquisitions, and the utility cannot build generation. PJM Interconnection serves more than 67 million people. Its July auction for 2028/2029 fell 6.8 gigawatts below reliability requirements, after a roughly 6.5-gigawatt shortfall for 2027/2028. PJM said the gap implies slimmer reserves and greater risk, not necessarily unreliable service. No project will proceed without a large customer. There is no timeline, and output, technology and site configuration remain undecided. Plants would connect to the grid, while current work is limited to site evaluation and due diligence.