Constellation, Calpine Developing Co-located Gas-Fired Power for Texas Data Center
Data center developer CyrusOne has signed up for 380 MW of utility-scale and co-located gas-fired generation capacity to power its planned computing facility in Freestone County, Texas.
Dallas-based Cyrus One will gain access to power from the adjacent Freestone Energy Center, which is owned and operated by Constellation and its recently acquired subsidiary, Calpine LLC. Calpine also is contracted to commit to and deliver another 380 MW for a future phase two of the CyrusOne data center project.
This is the third power purchase agreement (PPA) deal between Calpine and CyrusOne, starting with the 400-MW commitment in Bosque County, Texas, announced last year..
Constellation, formerly the power generation unit of utility holding company Exelon Corp., owns nuclear and gas-fired assets mainly across the eastern U.S. The company also is working with other tech giants, including hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Meta, to supply nuclear power under long-term PPAs.
"This agreement with CyrusOne demonstrates Constellation’s ability to meet the growing demand from the data economy while maintaining grid reliability, creating jobs and economic growth, and benefiting local customers and communities,” Constellation CEO Joe Domingquez said in a statement. “By leveraging existing infrastructure and grid connections, we can help customers move quickly while ensuring continued reliability for Texans.”
The Freestone County project will utilize Constellation’s Powered Land Capabilities suite of services. Powered Land Capabilities is designed to provide power generation, land and grid access in a connected way that prioritizes speed-to-market and predictability during a time when the traditional utility grid is under duress to deal with skyrocketing AI and data computing energy demand.
Many hyperscalers and data center developers are looking to seek out co-located and on-site power solutions to develop “speed to power” alternatives to lengthy utility interconnection delays.
Calpine Corp. has been working on the Freestone Energy Center project for several years and expects to begin generating power into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid by this summer. The state of Texas granted Calpine a loan agreement through its Texas Energy Fund approved by legislators several years ago.
In January, Constellation completed its estimated $16.4 billion acquisition of privately owned Calpine. The independent power producer owns gas, geothermal and renewable energy assets across the U.S.
CyrusOne has developed and now operates more than 60 data centers in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
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About the Author
Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor
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For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].
Rod Walton has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.
EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023
Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.