Dive Brief:

• Advanced nuclear technology developer Last Energy will deploy 30 microreactors to serve data center customers across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas territory, the company said today.
• The 20-MWe units would be deployed in phases, eventually adding 600 MW of electric capacity to the ERCOT grid in the coming years, a Last Energy spokesperson told Utility Dive. Last Energy submitted a grid interconnection request to ERCOT earlier this month and is exploring options for both front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter connections, the spokesperson said.
• The project will help advance Texas’s effort “to be number one in advanced nuclear power,” Gov. Greg Abbott, R, said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

ERCOT is expecting substantial load growth over the next five years. The grid operator’s most recent forecast added 37 GW to its 2029 projection, according to Grid Strategies, for a total growth estimate of 43 GW through that year.

ERCOT’s modeling shows data centers and “hydrogen/industrial” accounting for the vast majority of large load growth through 2030. By then, it expects 148 GW in large load contracts and 153 GW in summer peak demand.

Data centers and other large loads are pursuing a variety of grid-connected and behind-the-meter resource options to serve near-term electricity needs.

In December, Google, TPG Climate and Intersect Power announced a $20 billion partnership to develop “powered land” to serve colocated hyperscale data centers with a mix of renewables, energy storage and backup generation. The partners did not announce a location for their first project, but said it could be operational next year and fully built out by 2027.

In Texas, 360.5 MW of behind-the-meter gas turbines will power the first data center built for the Stargate project, a joint venture of OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX, according to Data Center Dynamics.

Texas has seen a number of partnerships between advanced nuclear technology companies and high-load industrial customers as well. Dow and X-energy are working toward deploying four 80-MWe reactors at the chemicals firm’s Seadrift site, while Oklo and Diamondback Energy last year announced a non-binding agreement to supply the oil and gas company’s Permian Basin operations with Oklo’s 50-MWe reactors.

In a statement, Last Energy CEO Bret Kugelmass said the company’s “plug-and-play microreactors” offer the best option to meet rising demand for power in Texas.

“Because of our emphasis on mass-manufacturability and productization, we employ a ‘design once, build many’ approach,” the Last Energy spokesperson told Utility Dive. “This enables us to learn from repetition during the fabrication and assembly processes, which, in turn, helps us reduce costs and accelerate timelines.”

Last Energy has not publicly announced any customers for its Texas microreactors, but “[we] expect to be able to share more news about offtakers over the coming months,” the spokesperson said.

The Texas project is Last Energy’s first announced U.S. deployment, but the company has commercial agreements to deliver more than 80 microreactors in Europe, it said today. Half of those European deployments will serve data centers, it said.

In December, Last Energy joined Texas and Utah in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s “overburdensome” microreactor regulations. The company declined to comment on how today’s announcement would affect the suit, citing active litigation.