Vistra is pursuing deals with data center developers in Texas and the PJM region to address the industry’s energy needs at multiple sites, executives revealed during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 7.
The Texas-based competitive generator has entered discussions with some of the largest, unnamed data center operators to increase output at its nuclear sites, including its 2.4-GW Comanche Peak nuclear plant near Dallas in Texas. It is also in discussions with two “particular large companies” about building new gas power plants to support a data center project directly, and it is exploring partnerships for co-location opportunities at several of its existing gas-fired plants in both PJM and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), said Stacey Doré, Vistra’s head of Strategy, during the call.
“We are currently pursuing deals at multiple sites in our portfolio. We’re also having some early conversations with some of the developers about a kind of portfolio approach where, with one customer, we might be able to pursue co-location deals at multiple sites and combine that with even building some new generation,” Doré said.
“We’re in pretty detailed customer discussions at some of our nuclear sites. There’s a lot of interest, obviously, in the nuclear side,” she noted. “But we have ongoing conversations with several different development companies, about a handful of our gas sites, both in PJM and in ERCOT. And we’re in early discussions with some of the hyperscalers about nuclear uprates and some new build,” she said.
Executives on Thursday noted load growth projections in both PJM and ERCOT are trending upward. The many drivers of power demand growth include “the build-out of large chip manufacturing facilities, partially due to the CHIPS Act the electrification of oil and gas load in the Permian Basin of West Texas, the reshoring of industrial activity and, of course, the build-out of data centers,” said Vistra president and CEO Jim Burke.
