PPAs for behind-the-meter power

A behind-the-meter power purchase agreement is a contract to buy electricity from generation on your own site, delivered physically across the fence line rather than settled financially across a grid. It keeps the familiar PPA skeleton — a term, a price, a counterparty who owns the plant — but swaps out the grid’s machinery: no delivery point at a distant hub, no basis risk, no transmission tariffs, and availability guarantees doing the work the grid’s reliability once did.

Physical delivery, not financial settlement

Most large corporate PPAs are financial: the generator sells into the market at one node, the buyer pays or receives the difference against a fixed price, and the actual electrons come from the local utility. A behind-the-meter PPA is physical. The plant next door generates; the load consumes; the meter between them settles the bill. What you buy is what you run on, which changes the contract from a hedge into a supply chain. It also changes the negotiation: instead of arguing over market structures neither party controls, the two sides negotiate the performance of a specific plant both can walk.

No basis risk, no tariff stack

Financial PPAs carry basis risk — the gap between the price where the generator sells and the price where the buyer buys — plus the retail stack of transmission and distribution charges, ancillary services, and riders that arrive regardless of the PPA. A behind-the-meter PPA has no basis because there is no distance, and no tariff stack because no wires company sits in the path. The all-in comparison is worked through in behind-the-meter vs grid: the cost math.

Availability guarantees replace the grid

Off-grid, contract terms do the job grid engineering once did. A behind-the-meter PPA specifies guaranteed availability, redundancy standards, maintenance windows, fuel-supply obligations, and remedies when performance falls short — because the buyer’s uptime now depends on one plant, the contract makes that plant’s performance enforceable. Term length matters as much as the percentage: a strong guarantee is one the seller can sustain for the life of the agreement, not just its first year. This is the section that deserves the most scrutiny, and the diligence questions behind it are laid out in how to evaluate a BTM power provider.

Who offers them

Behind-the-meter PPAs are offered by the independent power producers that own and operate on-site generation — including Corley Energy, which sells firm, contracted power from Power Foundry in the Permian Basin under long-term agreements. Rental providers offer leases and tolling arrangements instead; the difference in what is promised, and for how long, is the heart of the choice. Ask every seller the same question — who owns and operates the plant in year ten — and the archetypes sort themselves quickly.

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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