Behind-the-Meter Power Generation Increasingly Prevalent at U.S. Data Centers

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Written by Eric Funderburk for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

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Summary

Data center developers are increasingly constructing their own natural gas-fired power generation to power their facilities.

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Supplying Power

Concern over data centers and their use of resources is springing up throughout the U.S., with water and power being the primary resources causing the most pushback. Some data center developers are attempting to take care of their power needs by providing their own behind-the-meter power generation that can be used to operate all or part of a data center campus.

Most behind-the-meter power generation accompanying data centers uses natural gas in one system or another, be it combined-cycle or simple-cycle turbines, internal combustion engines, or fuel cells that use a non-combustion process. Industrial Info Resources data find more than $214 billion worth of projects that have some relation to behind-the-meter generation, be they the data centers themselves or the power facilities accompanying data centers.

Current Construction

More than $2 billion worth of behind-the-meter power generation facilities are under construction at data centers in the U.S., with one of the more notable projects coming from data center giant Meta Platforms. In New Albany, Ohio, a particular data center hotspot, Meta is constructing two 286.5-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plants to power its Prometheus data center complex. Industrial Info Resources data find one of the power plants, Plato South, is expected to be completed this year, followed by Plato North in early 2027. The facilities will run a range of combustion engines and gas turbines. Industrial Info Resources' coverage of the data centers shows multiple buildings at the two Prometheus campuses have been completed, with the final few expected to be finished this summer. Turner Construction is heading up the work on the data centers.

Two other behind-the-meter generation construction projects that are underway in Texas add up to more than $1.1 billion in investment. These include Poolside AI's 576-MW gas-fired facility to power its Project Horizon data center in Fort Stockton and a 246-MW facility supporting a San Antonio-area campus. Poolside AI is considering adding another 360 MW of generation to the Fort Stockton campus in the future, although such an addition is expected to be years away.

Future Projects

An even larger behind-the-meter power generation project is set to kick off in Fort Stockton later this year when Pacifico Energy begins building a 1,300-MW gas-fired facility that will include 21 Siemens turbines, each rated at 62 MW, as well as a 500-MW battery energy storage system. Industrial Info Resources data indicate Pacifico is constructing power generation first, which is expected to be completed in 2028, which will be followed by completion of an initial building of its Pacifico GW Ranch data center complex later that year, and additional building completions through 2030. Pacifico has big plans that include around another 5.3 gigawatts of natural gas-fired generation at the site, although this remains in an early stage of planning.

Multiple other data center-power pairings are gearing up for construction with one of the most notable endeavors coming from Oh Hitt Corporation, which is drawing up plans for a multibuilding data center at the Chickasha Airport Industrial Park that will be accompanied by up to 500 MW of natural gas-fired power, constructed over four phases.

Key Takeaways

• U.S. data center developers are increasingly supplying their own behind-the-meter natural gas-fired power generation to run their facilities.
• More than $2 billion of behind-the-meter generation projects for data centers are presently construction in Texas and Ohio.
• Fort Stockton, Texas, eventually could be home more than 6 gigawatts of behind-the-meter gas fired power generation for data centers.

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About Industrial Info Resources
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, Industrial Info Resources is tracking over 250,000 current and future projects worth $30.2 trillion (USD).