Blackstone buys $1 billion Virginia power station near data centers
Blackstone's unit dedicated to energy investments has acquired Potomac Energy Center. The asset manager announced the deal on Thursday. This is a sign of the appeal of data centers located near power plants to investors.
Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, according to an official statement, has agreed to purchase the 774 megawatt natural gas-fired plant in Loudoun County of northern Virginia.
Blackstone paid around $1 billion, according to sources who are familiar with the situation. Ares Management, a fellow investment firm, has owned the facility since 2021.
Potomac Energy Center, located in northern Virginia outside Washington D.C., is estimated to hold around a quarter the capacity of U.S. Data Centers.
According to Blackstone Energy Transition Partners Senior Managing Director Bilal Khan, Potomac Energy Center's proximity is one of the main reasons it was attractive.
Khan said, "This is a unique opportunity." Khan said that the location of the plant, its unmatched access to data centres in Virginia and its efficiency and young age are all reasons why it is unique.
The plant was constructed in 2017.
Power demand is expected to continue to grow for the remainder of this decade, driven by the boom in artificial Intelligence and data centers. The demand for power generation assets is increasing, particularly gas-fired plants that can deliver the constant power output data centers need.
Constellation Energy announced earlier this month that it had agreed to purchase Calpine for $16.4 billion. The largest U.S. energy deal in almost two decades aims to add Calpine's primarily gas-fired generation fleet to Constellation’s existing generation mix, which is predominantly nuclear power.
Blackstone invests in data centers as well as the energy infrastructure that powers them. Blackstone agreed to a $16 Billion deal in September to purchase Australian data center operator AirTrunk. AI cloud platform CoreWeave announced that it had raised $7.5 Billion from investment firms, including Blackstone.
(source: Reuters)
