A Plant Next Door: New Era Energy & Digital's Power Purchase Agreement for Its Texas Data Center Project

New Era Energy & Digital, which calls itself "a developer of next-generation digital infrastructure and integrated power assets", announced in a release dated September 21, 2026, that a subsidiary had signed a power purchase agreement for the first phase of its Texas Critical Data Center project. The release writes "PPA" for the agreement and "TCDC" for the project. Below its date it gives the deal in one line, "Firm, contracted power for up to 207 MW gives New Era control of Phase 1 power". This article reports parts of the release.

The agreement

The supplier is an affiliate of a second company, and the release names both. The supplier "has agreed to supply a minimum of 200 MW and up to 207 MW of power for Phase 1 of New Era's Texas Critical Data Center". The power is to come from the second company's natural gas plant of 1,180 MW in Odessa, Texas, "which is located immediately adjacent to the TCDC site."

The release sets the term. "The PPA has an initial 20-year term, with automatic one-year renewal periods thereafter." The release says the contracted power "is expected to be available to TCDC in Q3 of 2027."

A contract for power from a plant next to the site speaks to where the power comes from. When it arrives is a separate question, and the release gives that as an expectation.

What the other side gets

The two companies' affiliates also signed what the release calls a development framework agreement. It "establishes a pathway for advancing future power development at TCDC and other New Era projects." Under it the second company gets a stake in part of the project. "Following commencement of power delivery," the release says, it "will receive a 5% non-voting interest in the portion of the data center project to which" it "provides power under the PPA."

The framework goes further than a stake. The release says it also gives the second company a right of first refusal on future development opportunities at the project, and a right of first offer on certain development opportunities serving other New Era projects.

Once power delivery begins, the second company is to hold a non-voting interest in the portion of the project to which it provides power. A lender would want to read those terms in full, because the release gives only their outline.

The cautions

Under the heading "Forward-Looking Statements", the release lists factors that could make results differ. Among them are the company's ability to build, develop, lease and maintain its main project, and its ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the power purchase agreement. The statements also cover "our ability to obtain credit support on commercially reasonable terms or at all". Or at all.