PECOS, Texas — Amazon is financing a massive natural-gas power plant in West Texas to supply electricity to a planned data center campus, expanding the technology company's use of dedicated power generation as Texas faces growing pressure on its electricity grid.
The project in Pecos County, known as GW Ranch, is designed to use 35 natural-gas turbines capable of generating up to 7.65 gigawatts of electricity, according to permits and project information reviewed by multiple sources. Amazon recently acquired the site and plans to purchase power from the facility, which is being developed by Pacifico Energy.
The plant initially would operate outside the Texas power grid, providing electricity directly to Amazon's planned data center. Amazon said the campus is designed to transition to grid-connected service as interconnection capacity becomes available.
"Amazon believes in paying the full costs of powering our operations," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement reported by the Houston Chronicle. The company said the on-site generation would not increase electricity costs for Texas households and that it was exploring solar power and battery storage for the site.
The project comes as technology companies race to secure electricity for increasingly power-intensive artificial intelligence infrastructure. Texas has attracted major data center investment, but the surge in proposed demand has prompted state officials to tighten oversight of large electricity users.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott in June directed the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to require data centers to cover the costs of electric infrastructure needed for their operations and to prevent those costs from being shifted to residential customers.
ERCOT and the state commission subsequently approved a new process for evaluating large electricity users of at least 75 megawatts, allowing the grid operator to assess proposed connections collectively and determine whether the system can reliably accommodate them.
The GW Ranch project has also drawn attention because its Texas air permit allows the proposed plant to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, a level that could make it one of the largest permitted sources of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States. The permitted figure represents a maximum rather than confirmed annual emissions.
Amazon has said the campus will use non-potable water and technologies intended to reduce water consumption. The company expects the project to create thousands of jobs, while construction of the data center and associated power infrastructure is already under way.
