Chevron and ExxonMobil are exploring ways to jump into the electricity supply business to fuel energy-hungry data centers.
On Wednesday, ExxonMobil announced in a corporate update that it plans to build a new 1.5 GW natural gas-fired plant that exclusively powers data centers. This would be the first time ExxonMobil has built a power plant that doesn’t supply energy to its operations but rather to data centers. ExxonMobil said it would deploy carbon capture technology with the gas-fired plant to capture more than 90% of the facility’s emissions. However, the firm did not disclose the location or cost of the plant.
Last week, Mike Wirth, Chevron's chief executive, said at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council that his firm has been investigating opportunities for power projects to fuel data centers that won't be connected to the electric grid. He said his firm has been in talks to supply natural gas-fired power to data centers.
The growing number of energy-intensive data centers coming online across the U.S. is spurring utilities to ramp up their plans to add new power generation sources — including a slew of gas-fired plants, as addressed in Storm Front. For example, Microsoft has more than 300 data centers (see photo below). The company mostly gets its electricity from local power grids, but is seeking new solutions for more energy. In September, Microsoft inked a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Constellation Energy to restart Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear station near Middletown, PA. Unit 1 has been offline since 2019 and closed for economic reasons. The most serious nuclear accident in U.S. history occurred at Unit 2 on March 28, 1979.
