Outstanding personal fairness funding agency Blackstone has agreed to accumulate the 774-MW Potomac Vitality Middle—a pure fuel energy plant positioned in Virginia’s “Knowledge Middle Alley”—in a deal reportedly valued at roughly $1 billion, in keeping with sources conversant in the matter.
Beforehand generally known as the Panda Stonewall Vitality Facility, the Potomac Vitality Middle is located inside PJM Interconnection in Loudon County, a area of Northern Virginia, which presently hosts 25% of U.S. information middle capability. “The Potomac plant is positioned in shut proximity to over 130 information facilities—with vital additional development anticipated,” stated Blackstone Vitality Transition Companions, Blackstone’s energy-focused personal fairness enterprise.
Potomac Vitality Middle: A Strategic Energy Play
The mixed cycle producing station was accomplished in Might 2017 to fulfill the rising vitality calls for of Northern Virginia’s information center-driven market. Initially constructed for Panda Energy and Siemens Monetary Group, the undertaking was spearheaded by Inexperienced Vitality Companions and executed below a turnkey consortium comprising Bechtel Corp. and Siemens Vitality. The power incorporates superior expertise, together with two SGT6-5000F fuel generators. In 2021, Ares Administration Company acquired the plant by way of its subsidiary ARCC Inexperienced Vitality Companions Blocker as a part of a broader out-of-court restructuring. The transaction included a monetary restructuring that refinanced the plant’s present debt with a $490 million bundle.
Pure fuel is equipped to the plant from two 30-inch fuel pipelines that cross by way of the plant web site. The ability plant connects to the grid by way of an present 230 kV line that traverses the location. Regulated by the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee (FERC), the plant additionally supplies reactive energy providers below PJM’s Open Entry Transmission Tariff.
Whereas Blackstone didn’t reveal the phrases of its transaction in its announcement on Friday, Reuters reported that “Blackstone is paying round $1 billion for the ability.” The valuation could mirror Potomac’s strategic location and effectivity. POWER has verified this reporting with sources conversant in the matter.
“This funding underscores Blackstone’s dedication to investing within the electrical infrastructure required to energy AI innovation,” stated Bilal Khan, senior managing director at Blackstone Vitality Transition Companions, in a press release on Friday. “We consider Potomac is well-positioned to assist meet information center-driven energy demand development in Northern Virginia.”
Blackstone officers highlighted the plant’s alternative to provide baseload energy to the energy-hungry area and its “potential to combine a hydrogen gasoline mix sooner or later, which may present future environmental advantages.”
“I’m tremendously enthusiastic about this funding. Potomac has a fame and historical past for offering dependable and high-quality era capability, that are essential to serving to assist the area’s rising energy wants,” stated Lee Davis, CEO of Creto Vitality, Blackstone Vitality Transition Companions’ North America energy platform.
Investing in Megatrends: AI, Energy, and the Digital Economic system
The deal is notable for Blackstone, the world’s largest different asset supervisor. In a latest weblog, Ken Caplan, world co-head of Actual Property at Blackstone, outlined quite a few “megatrends” which are “redefining” industries and client behaviors. “We see a major alternative to spend money on the businesses and belongings driving the subsequent part of financial development. We view this as constructing the infrastructure of the long run, focusing notably on 4 megatrends: [artificial intelligence (AI)], energy, life sciences, and the digital economic system,” he wrote.
“AI is powered by information, and in recent times, whole information era has been doubling each three years. Between 2010 and 2025, information created, consumed and saved may have elevated over 100x,” he famous. Blackstone has acquired a considerable share within the area, together with by way of a $10 billion acquisition of QTS, a publicly traded information middle firm, in 2021 and a $16 billion acquisition of AirTrunk, Asia’s largest information middle operator, in 2024. Additionally in 2024, the agency spearheaded a $7.5 billion debt financing facility for CoreWeave, a specialised supplier of cloud infrastructure tailor-made for AI workloads. It additionally injected $300 million into DDN, a worldwide chief in AI and information intelligence options, to gasoline the corporate’s speedy development. The strikes have positioned Blackstone as a worldwide chief in digital infrastructure, with a portfolio valued at $70 billion in working or under-construction properties and a land financial institution that may assist an extra $100 billion in improvement, Caplan stated.
In tandem, “Energy is going through a dramatic provide and demand imbalance. U.S. vitality demand has stayed comparatively regular since 2005, however energy demand is projected to develop by a strong 40% over the subsequent decade,” Caplan added. “A rise of this magnitude transforms a traditionally secure market into one with ample alternatives for these with capital and experience to behave as resolution suppliers.”
A major purpose is that “present infrastructure is already strained, requiring large investments in energy era, transmission, and distribution. The U.S. energy grid, with a mean age of over 40 years, lacks the capability to fulfill rising demand,” he wrote. “To maintain tempo, the nation must double the grid’s capability over the subsequent 12 to 13 years, which requires large capital funding. Simply connecting present vitality tasks within the U.S. transmission queue to the grid requires an estimated $3.9 trillion.”
Blackstone famous that whereas it’s investing in “alternatives throughout the whole energy infrastructure spectrum,” vitality infrastructure “represents ~30% of our $50 billion+ infrastructure enterprise, and we now have a devoted vitality transition fund.”
The agency, notably, owns Invenergy, the most important unbiased renewables developer in North America. “Our dedication to energy infrastructure extends past fairness investments,” Caplan famous. “Blackstone is among the most energetic lenders within the area, offering capital options to corporations powering the economic system. By our investments throughout vitality era, transmission, distribution, essential tools, and providers—spanning each debt and fairness—we’re serving to deal with the intermittency of renewable vitality sources.” The corporate, for instance, is a strategic investor in pure fuel corporations, like its midstream three way partnership with EQT and our funding in Tallgrass Vitality Companions, he stated.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
