Talen focused on data center demand as it considers axing crypto business

(Adds financial details and CEO quotes starting in sixth paragraph)

By Laila Kearney

NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Talen Energy is focused on capturing surging demand from data center developers as the independent power company looks to pivot away from its crypto mining operation, company executives said on Tuesday.

Talen is among a group of U.S. electric companies benefiting from the power needs of artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers, with shares of Talen up nearly 100% since the start of the year.

"It's not a strategic asset for us and we are looking at... other alternatives," Talen Energy Chief Executive Officer Mark McFarland said of the crypto mining business on a second-quarter earnings call.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Talen was looking to sell its stake in a bitcoin mining center at the site of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant

Talen raised its earnings and free cash flow forecasts for the year as it benefits from higher power use and prices, bigger payments from regional grid operator PJM Interconnection and a payout for a data center sold to Amazon.com early this year.

Talen revised up its adjusted EBITDA range for 2024 to $720 million to $780 million, from $600 million to $800 million previously. Its free cash flow estimate for the year was revised to $245 million to $285 million, from $160 million to $310 million previously. The company benefited from unseasonably warm weather in the three months ended on June 30, among other factors.

Talen expects to receive $670 million from capacity revenues for the 2025/2026 planning year, or $470 million more than the previous year, following a capacity auction in the

PJM

market.

Talen also plans on $300 million of Amazon data center campus escrow to be released in the third quarter.

The data center is at the center of a battle between Talen and regulated electric utilities, American Electric Power and Exelon, which say the build-out to connect the center could raise costs for everyday power customers.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is reviewing the amended interconnection service agreement for the center, and will hold a technical conference this fall more broadly on what are known as co-located data centers, in which data centers are located at the power plant sites that fuel them.

McFarland said he was optimistic that FERC would approve the amended agreement.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Leslie Adler)