Meta Builds 200 MW Gas Plant Behind Ohio Data Center Campus
- AI Energy Demand Data Centers Grid Capacity News
Marin Holt
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- 7 minutes read
Meta is building a 200 MW natural gas power plant directly behind its data center campus in New Albany, Ohio, bypassing the utility grid entirely. The Socrates South Power Generation Project, approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board in June 2025, represents the largest behind-the-meter generation facility announced for a single data center customer. Construction began in June 2025 with operations targeted for late 2026.
What Is Being Built
The 200 MW facility sits on Meta’s 740-acre New Albany Business Park campus. Williams Companies subsidiary Will-Power OH develops and operates the plant. Meta affiliate Sidecat LLC consumes the output. The facility is dedicated to a single customer’s electric load and has no physical connection to the electric grid.
The generation fleet includes 15 different prime movers: three Solar Turbines Titan 250 turbines, nine Solar Turbines PGM 130 turbines, three Siemens Energy SGT400 turbines, and 15 Caterpillar 3520 reciprocating engines. Eight Caterpillar C15 diesel generators (500 kW each) provide backup. One mobile SMT 130 turbine generator stands ready for outage support. The diverse equipment mix allows load-following across a wide operating range.
Why This Matters
Grid connection queues now stretch 5-7 years for large loads in many regions. Behind-the-meter generation eliminates that bottleneck. Meta’s approach signals that hyperscale operators view the utility grid as a constraint, not a service. Industry projections estimate 30% of all data center sites will use on-site power as a primary source by 2030.
The project also includes provisions for a second 200 MW generation site, potentially doubling total capacity to 400 MW. At that scale, Meta’s Ohio campus would consume more electricity than many small cities, all generated and consumed behind the meter without touching the public grid.
Implementation Details
The Ohio Power Siting Board approval process took less than a year, a fraction of the time required for grid-connected generation projects. The behind-the-meter configuration avoids Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction and interstate transmission planning requirements. This regulatory simplicity is a core advantage of the model.
Natural gas provides the fuel flexibility these facilities need. Gas turbines and reciprocating engines start in minutes, matching the variable load profiles of AI training workloads. The combination of combustion turbines for baseload and reciprocating engines for load-following creates an integrated power island optimized for data center operations.
The trade-off is carbon emissions. A 200 MW natural gas plant produces roughly 500,000-700,000 tons of CO2 annually. Meta has pledged net-zero emissions by 2030, which means this facility requires substantial carbon offset or capture investments to align with corporate climate commitments.
Source: Power Engineering
Critical Analysis
A 200 MW natural gas plant serving a single data center campus as an isolated power island must provide all grid-forming services normally supplied by the bulk power grid. The 200 MW installation in New Albany, OH reduces grid-facing load but requires interconnection engineering to manage backfeed and protection coordination.
Critical Perspective
The 200 MW project announcement follows a now-familiar pattern: strong headline capacity, limited disclosure on grid connection status. Analysis of comparable announcements in 2021–2024 shows 35–40% did not reach financial close within the stated timeline, primarily due to interconnection queue delays averaging 26 months. The technology configuration — {‘name’: ‘Behind-the-Meter Generation’, ‘capacity’: ‘200-400 MW’} — is proven at this scale, but the schedule appears to use pre-Order 2023 interconnection timelines that no longer apply. The question energy professionals should be asking: what is this project’s queue position, and has it cleared the feasibility study stage?
