NEW YORK, July 5 (Reuters) - Talen Energy ( TLNE ) has

asked U.S. regulators to reject a challenge to its recent Amazon ( AMZN )

data center deal, which is being opposed by a group of

electric utilities that say the agreement could raise power

bills for the general public, according to a filing on Friday.

Talen said the challenge, brought by utilities including

American Electric Power ( AEP ) and Exelon ( EXC ), was

inaccurate and that its interconnection agreement for the Amazon ( AMZN )

data center site would not cause grid reliability problems or

spiking power costs for the utility customers.

"It is an unlawful attempt to hijack this limited

interconnection service agreement amendment proceeding that they

have no stake in and turn it into an ad hoc national referendum

on the future of data center load," Talen said in its filing

with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Technology companies are in a race to access massive amounts

of electricity supplies to power and cool the data centers, or

giant computer warehouses, needed to roll out technologies like

generative AI. Nuclear energy, which is virtually carbon free

and provides around-the-clock power, has become a top pick for

the data center industry.

Talen announced in March that it had entered into an

agreement to sell electricity and a data center campus located

at its Pennsylvania nuclear power plant to Amazon Web Services.

The deal would provide Amazon's ( AMZN ) computer warehouses with an

electric capacity of up to 960 megawatts, or enough to power

about a million homes.

A handful of electric utilities, including American Electric

Power ( AEP ) and Exelon ( EXC ), last month asked FERC to hold a hearing to

more deeply scrutinize Talen's interconnection agreement with

Amazon ( AMZN ) or deny it outright. The group said the interconnection

agreement for the data center could result in a $140 million per

year cost shift to everyday ratepayers.