Tech
McCloud Has 813 Gas Units Where EPE Promised Solar
El Paso Electric CEO Kelly Tomblin told the El Paso Times in 2024 that Meta required solar. The CCN filing shows 813 gas generators, a 1.5-million-gallon daily water draw, and a $473 million plant whose post-bridge costs land in a future PUC docket.
In 2024, El Paso Electric CEO Kelly Tomblin told the El Paso Times that Meta requires its data center to run on solar or other renewables. EPE filed for 813 gas generators instead.
EPE submitted the application on December 8, 2025 (PUC Docket 57501). The McCloud facility it describes has 813 modular natural gas generators rated 450 kilowatts each, totaling 366 megawatts. Enchanted Rock, a Houston-based microgrid operator, would build and operate the plant on 31 acres adjacent to the campus at a cost EPE estimates at $473 million.
Meta broke ground in October 2025 on 1,000 acres in Northeast El Paso. By March 2026 the company had raised its commitment from $1.5 billion to $10 billion, targeting 1 gigawatt of campus capacity by 2028.
Water
El Paso Water issued a supply agreement permitting Meta to draw up to 1.5 million gallons per day. That exceeds Marathon Petroleum's El Paso refinery draw of 1.1 million gallons per day. El Paso Water describes the city's existing supplies as already stretched.
The supply agreement carries no emergency cutback threshold. Corpus Christi voted 7-2 this spring to require 25% cuts from heavy industrial users when a Level 1 emergency is declared; El Paso has no equivalent mechanism.
The Rate Question
The bridge period runs five years. If the TCEQ air permit clears before fall 2026, the plant operates from approximately 2027 to 2032 on Meta's tab, then connects to EPE's main grid.
EPE finances construction through its own capital. During the bridge period, Meta pays a commission-approved rate covering all costs. EPE projects $32.3 million in profit over the plant's full operating life, not the bridge period alone. On a $473 million asset with a standard gas-plant lifespan of 30 or more years, that is roughly $1 million per year.
EPE's CCN filing states it would then "incorporate the cost of the plant into jurisdictional cost of service and retail rates" but does not specify the allocation. The PUC approved a separate EPE rate increase in February 2026, raising average residential bills from $98 to $111 per month. El Paso City Council filed for rehearing in March, arguing FERC transmission credits had been misallocated.
EPE's justification for rejecting solar cited a need for "thousands of acres" unavailable adjacent to the site. El Paso averages more than 300 sunny days per year. By January 2026, Tomblin had shifted tone at a Las Cruces industry conference, questioning whether renewables could reliably power data centers.
A $32.3 million return over 30-plus years of plant life reframes the bridge deal as near-cost-recovery pricing. The undepreciated asset connecting to EPE's grid around 2032 enters a rate proceeding whose terms have not been set.
If the TCEQ air permit clears before fall 2026, McCloud goes online in 2027. The cost-allocation proceeding that follows will be the first time the PUC determines what El Paso residential customers owe on a $473 million plant built for a single data center.