Behind-the-meter power

Generate where you compute. Mobile turbines and reciprocating engines can be on site in months, though new large gas turbines now take years to deliver; either way on-site generation skips the interconnection queue, so an operator with a signed customer and a site but no grid connection starts earning sooner (natural gas for data centers).

Islanding goes further: on-site generation is the primary supply and the grid only a backup. It gives full control over power but needs enough generation for the whole load plus spare capacity.

Regulators watch it. Turbines need air quality permits that usually cap annual operating hours, and in November 2024 FERC rejected an expansion of the Amazon campus’s co-located load at Talen Energy’s Susquehanna nuclear plant from 300 MW to 480 MW; the parties later restructured the deal as a front-of-meter supply contract.

It moves the power date forward but adds a fuel, permit and equipment risk the grid would carry. Lenders check the permits and their hour limits, the gas supply contract and the redundancy behind the cluster.

Collateral at a behind-the-meter site has fewer buyers in place: if the site fails, the GPUs come out and sell ex-situ.