The risks, underwritten.

Behind-the-meter gas generation carries six real risks: fuel supply, permitting, equipment delivery, plant availability, counterparty credit, and regulatory drift. None of them is exotic, and each can be underwritten — named, mitigated, and priced before capital commits. The buyers who fare best are not the ones who found a risk-free provider, because there isn't one. They are the ones who made the risk register explicit.

Fuel and permits

Fuel supply. The plant is only as firm as its gas. Interruptible transport, a single delivery path, or spot-market exposure can idle machines that are otherwise perfect. The mitigation is firm, contracted supply secured at the source — strongest in a basin that produces more gas than it can ship, as explained in why is Waha gas so cheap?

Permitting. Air permits gate the schedule, and a project that starts permitting after a customer signs has put the slowest workstream last. The mitigation is sequencing: permits pulled before commitments are made, in jurisdictions with a clear, well-trodden process.

Iron and uptime

Equipment delivery. Turbines and engines are a tight market, and delivery slots — not construction — often set the critical path. The mitigation is procurement position: slots secured early and plant designs built around equipment that can actually be obtained.

Availability. Machines break. The mitigation is design and contract together: redundant units so a single failure never reaches the load, maintenance rotation, and availability guarantees with remedies — so the risk that remains is priced, not wished away.

Counterparty and regulation

Counterparty credit. A power contract is only as strong as the company behind it across a decade-long term. The mitigation is structure and scrutiny: credit support, milestone-based commitments, and the diligence laid out in how to evaluate a BTM power provider.

Regulatory drift. The rules around large loads and on-site generation are evolving in every market. A plant that serves its own customer behind the meter avoids the interconnection processes that gate grid projects, but no structure is outside the law's reach. The mitigation is siting where the framework is settled and permissive, and contracts that allocate change-in-law risk explicitly rather than by silence.

Candor as a diligence signal

The most useful tell in this category costs nothing to check: whether a provider will walk you through this list unprompted. One who names the risks and shows the mitigations has underwritten them. One who says there are none has simply not found them yet. The same logic behind the honest cost math applies to the risk register — candor is not a courtesy in this market; it is evidence of competence.

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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