Texas data center developer New Era Energy & Digital has signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra, for a minimum of 207MW of power to supply phase one of its Texas Critical Data Center (TCDC) project in Ector County, Texas.

The power will be delivered directly from Vistra’s 1.1GW natural gas-fired generating facility in Odessa, Texas, which is located immediately adjacent to the TCDC site. Power delivery is expected to commence in Q3 of 2027. The PPA was signed through a New Era subsidiary, TCDC PowerCo.

“Having firm, contracted power for phase one in New Era’s name is an incredible milestone which we believe materially reduces phase one development risk at TCDC,” said Charlie Nelson, chairman and CEO of New Era. “We said last month that holding this power ourselves is what would turn TCDC from a site with a power plan into permitted powered land. That is what this agreement is intended to do. With the land secured, construction permits in hand, phase one power contracted for 20 years, and room to expand to multiple phases, we believe this is an attractive opportunity to any quality tenant currently in the market.”

The deal includes a five percent non-voting interest in the data center to Vistra, which the company will acquire following the first delivery of power. The agreement also provides Vistra with a right of first refusal on future development opportunities at the TCDC project and a right of first offer on certain development opportunities serving future projects.

“Demand for reliable power to support digital infrastructure continues to grow across the United States,” said Claudia Morrow, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at Vistra. “We are pleased to work with New Era on a long-term power arrangement for the TCDC project and to establish a framework that allows us to evaluate additional power opportunities together over time.”

The Texas Critical Data Center project has been in the works for some time now. Initially, the project was set to be developed as a joint venture between New Era Helium and GPU cloud firm Sharon AI. Envisioned first as a 90MW data center, it was expanded to 250MW shortly after. In December, New Era secured Sharon AI’s stake in the company for $70 million and closed the purchase of an additional 203-acre site for the project, taking the campus to 438 acres. In April, the company signed a non-binding letter of intent to form a joint venture with Stream Data Centers for the development and financing of the campus.