New Era Energy & Digital has closed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Luminant ET Services Company, a subsidiary of Vistra, to supply between 200 MW and 207 MW of electricity for Phase 1 of the Texas Critical Data Center in the Permian Basin. The power will come from a Vistra natural gas-fired plant in Odessa, Texas, with a capacity of approximately 1,180 MW, located immediately adjacent to the 493-acre TCDC site. Supply is scheduled to be available in the third quarter of 2027, with the agreement subject to automatic annual renewals after the initial 20-year term. Chairman and CEO Charlie Nelson said securing the electricity contract reduces development risk for Phase 1, with the full TCDC eventually targeting a capacity of 1.4 GW.
The agreement illustrates a growing pattern in which large data center developers lock in dedicated generation supply through long-term PPAs with adjacent power plants, rather than relying on grid interconnection queues that have become heavily congested. By contracting directly with a plant located next to the development site, New Era bypasses grid connection delays while providing long-term energy cost certainty for a project that ultimately aims to reach 1.4 GW of capacity.
A 207 MW power purchase agreement between New Era and Vistra is a sizeable and specific PPA in the competitive Texas market, reflecting ongoing demand for dedicated power supply arrangements.