The cost math.

Comparing grid power to behind-the-meter generation with a single $/MWh number misses how the two products actually differ. One is a floating rate on shared infrastructure you wait years to reach. The other is a firm, fixed contract on dedicated infrastructure built in months. Here is the honest math.

What grid power actually costs

The energy price is only the start. A grid-served data center also pays transmission and distribution charges, congestion costs that spike where the grid is tight (which is precisely where data centers cluster), and full exposure to market volatility — ERCOT scarcity events have repriced power by orders of magnitude in a single afternoon. And before any of it flows, there's the queue: years of carrying cost on land, capital, and idle GPUs waiting for energization.

What behind-the-meter costs

BTM generation replaces that stack with three components: fuel, machines, and operations. Fuel is the lever. Built in the Permian Basin, gas is contracted at the wellhead or local hub — at Waha-linked prices that sit structurally below national benchmarks because the basin produces more gas than its pipelines can move. The capital cost of turbines or reciprocating engines and their upkeep is real, but it buys dedicated, firm capacity whose all-in cost is knowable on day one and contractable for a decade. No transmission charges. No congestion. No scarcity repricing.

The price of time

For an AI operator, the cost that dwarfs the energy line is the revenue a stalled campus doesn't earn. Every quarter between capital committed and racks energized is pure carry. Compress energization from years to months and the net present value swing routinely exceeds the entire cost difference between power sources. Speed-to-power isn't a convenience feature — it is the economics.

The honest cons

BTM is capital-intensive, and it concentrates execution risk in one counterparty: fuel supply, air permits, equipment delivery, uptime — all of it rides on the provider. Reliability must be engineered (redundant units, firm gas contracts, N+1 or better) rather than inherited from the grid's diversity. None of that is a reason to avoid the model; it is the reason diligence on the provider matters more than diligence on the technology.

About Corley Energy

Corley Energy is a behind-the-meter independent power producer, founded in 2024 by Jake Corley, Tim Bozeman, and Mark Meyer. We convert stranded Permian Basin natural gas into firm, contracted electricity for AI data centers at Power Foundry, our ~1,000-acre development in Upton County, Texas. Start with what a power foundry is, see the company facts, or check current capacity on the Sites page.

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How to evaluate a BTM power provider · Why is Waha gas so cheap? · What is a power foundry?