PowerHouse and Big Watt Secure Approval for 1GW Behind-the-Meter Data Center Campus in Taylor, Texas

PowerHouse and Big Watt Digital have received unanimous approval from the Taylor City Council for the Taylor Technology Campus, a 664-acre behind-the-meter data center project located in Williamson County, Texas, approximately 35 miles northeast of Austin. The approval, granted last week, marks a significant step forward for a development previously known as Project Mustang and underscores the growing industry trend of pairing dedicated power generation with digital infrastructure to circumvent grid constraints.

The campus, situated between FM 112 and US 79, is designed to deliver up to 1GW of data center capacity, supported by a new 750MW natural gas plant that will provide dedicated, behind-the-meter power. The first phase of the project aims to offer 500MW, with initial power targeted for the first half of 2028. The site will reportedly employ a closed-loop cooling system to reduce water consumption, addressing environmental concerns associated with large-scale data center operations.

The project reflects a broader shift in how data center developers are responding to the mounting challenge of power availability. As AI-driven demand for computing capacity surges across the United States, access to reliable and scalable energy has become one of the most critical bottlenecks facing the industry. By integrating dedicated power generation from the outset, the Taylor Technology Campus aims to deliver speed, scale and certainty for the AI economy without relying solely on incremental grid capacity.

"The introduction of the Taylor site demonstrates Big Watt and PowerHouse's immediate progress along with what the company was built to do: bring power and digital infrastructure together from the outset to deliver speed, scale and certainty for the AI economy," said Alex Hern, co-CEO and co-founder of Big Watt Digital. "By pairing digital infrastructure with dedicated, behind-the-meter power, we are designing for and addressing one of the biggest constraints facing data center development today — access to reliable power — without relying solely on incremental grid capacity."

PowerHouse, founded in 2022 as a division of American Real Estate Partners, has established a substantial footprint across the United States, with data center projects in operation and development spanning Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The company says its portfolio and pipeline totals more than 8GW of capacity. Investment giant Brookfield recently acquired a minority stake in AREP, signaling continued institutional confidence in the platform.

The firm already maintains a sizable presence in Texas. In March, it topped out a 201MW data center in Irving, near Dallas, and is currently developing a 768-acre campus with Provident Data Centers just south of Dallas in Ellis County. PowerHouse also looks set to develop on Tract-owned land outside Austin and recently filed for a project outside Fort Worth in Westlake.

Big Watt Digital, founded in 2021 and headquartered in Texas, is a power and digital infrastructure platform specializing in dedicated, behind-the-meter power generation. According to its website, the company has four projects totaling 5GW across three states.

The approval of the Taylor Technology Campus highlights the accelerating convergence of energy and digital infrastructure, as developers increasingly seek to control their own power supply to meet the demands of AI workloads. With grid interconnection queues lengthening and utilities struggling to keep pace with soaring electricity demand from data centers, behind-the-meter generation is emerging as a critical strategy for ensuring timely project delivery. The Taylor project's reliance on natural gas also reflects the ongoing role of fossil fuels in bridging the energy gap while renewable sources continue to scale.