# Smartland Energy - Full Site Text # Machine-readable corpus of every public page on https://smartlandenergy.com # Generated 2026-10-07 from the deployed build. Pages: 74 # Canonical index: https://smartlandenergy.com/llms.txt | Sitemap: https://smartlandenergy.com/sitemap.xml # The internal Land Acquisition CRM is private and is not included. # # Smartland Energy develops decentralized, dedicated behind-the-meter (BTM) power # infrastructure for AI and cloud data centers, advanced manufacturing, and # defense installations in the United States: generation built at the customer's # load, approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed, independent of utility # grid expansion queues. Contact: (877) 313-5777 / https://smartlandenergy.com/contact/ ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ TITLE: Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power for Data Centers | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Dedicated behind-the-meter power built at the load for AI and cloud data centers, industry, and defense: up to 400 MW per campus, N+2, ~24 months from NTP. ============================================================================== # Powering what's next. Smartland Energy develops dedicated, behind-the-meter power for the industries driving America's next generation of growth. Reserve Dedicated Power ## Decentralized Power, Built At The Load Smartland Energy develops decentralized power infrastructure: dedicated generation on the customer's side of the meter, sited at the load it serves, for AI factories and GPU campuses, cloud and large-scale data centers, robotics factories, heavy industry and advanced manufacturing, the defense industry, and other mission-critical operations. Our projects target power online in approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed, independent of centralized grid buildout. Depending on customer requirements, generation can be configured using modular reciprocating engines or high-efficiency combined-cycle technology, with future CHP integration available where beneficial. We are backed by Smartland, an established private equity platform, and led by an experienced team. We integrate the components most developers split: capital, generation technology, gas supply, permitting, land acquisition, and regulatory strategy. Our team has decades of experience building and commissioning more than 10 GW of gas and renewable capacity globally. Get In TouchLearn More About Us → 10+ GW Built and commissioned by our team globally: West Offaly, Lough Ree, GNPower Dinginin ~24 mo Notice to Proceed to power online 400 MW Maximum per campus for liquid-cooled, high-density compute N+2 Reliability architecture, A/B power at the POD Dedicated behind-the-meter (BTM) capacity under contract-backed SLAs, structured for procurement, lender, and investor diligence. ## Three Verticals, One Outcome We design, finance, build, and operate dedicated power for three verticals where grid-only supply is a liability: ### For AI & Cloud AI factories, GPU training campuses, and cloud infrastructure, with A/B power at the POD and a contract-backed SLA written for procurement and finance diligence. Learn More → ### For Industrial Robotics and automation factories, advanced manufacturing, food processing: production uptime, ramp behavior, optional CHP, transparent metering at the POD. Learn More → ### For Defense Installation resilience, island-mode capability, cyber-isolated controls, EUL/PPA/ESPC/UESC/ERCIP-ready structuring. Learn More → ## Team Projects Plants our team built and commissioned before Smartland Energy, part of a 10+ GW track record. View All Projects → ### West Offaly Power Station 150MW, Shannonbridge, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ### Lough Ree Power Station 100MW, Lanesborough, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ### GNPower Dinginin Coal-Fired Power Plant 2 × 725 MW, Bataan, Philippines Philippines, Asia View Project → ## A Straight-Talking Neighbor Every host community asks us the same nine questions, about property values, noise, air, water, and the grid. Here are our answers, in plain language, with real examples you can verify yourself. Read our Community Commitments → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/about/ TITLE: Behind-the-Meter Power Developer - About Us | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Power infrastructure developer building dedicated behind-the-meter generation at the customer's load, with power online ~24 months from Notice to Proceed. ============================================================================== # About Us A power infrastructure developer building dedicated behind-the-meter generation for the loads that cannot wait on the utility grid. ## Meet Our Leadership Leading with execution, technical depth, and capital discipline, our team develops power infrastructure for America's most demanding growth sectors. ### Vadim Kleyner Chairman & CEO Leads Smartland Energy's strategic direction across power infrastructure development, capital formation, and project execution. Combines long term infrastructure planning with disciplined capital markets strategy to drive complex, large scale energy developments from concept through operation. ### Richard Hubbard VP, Gas Power Development 30+ year power industry professional with experience in development, construction, commissioning and operation of utility scale power plants at sites around the world. ### Steven Gesis Managing Director, Capital Markets Oversees all capital formation efforts, including institutional equity and government backed funding. ### Irina Kleyner Director, Land Acquisition Leads land acquisition and site transaction management for Smartland Energy's power infrastructure projects. With deep experience across commercial and industrial real estate transactions, Irina oversees the full site acquisition lifecycle, from initial site identification and due diligence through contract execution and closing. ### Kevin Stanek Corporate Counsel Kevin Stanek is an attorney with deep experience in both private and public practice. He has advised both the government and private sector clients on a range of policy and regulatory matters, Kevin also brings experience with transactional matters, public finance and economic development. ## Mission Smartland Energy develops dedicated BTM power for large cloud and AI data centers and AI operations, large industrial campuses, defense installations, and the critical defense industrial base. Our model is decentralized: generation built at the customer's load, independent of centralized grid expansion. We build the energy backbone for the loads that drive American technological and industrial growth, and we do it where the utility grid cannot, will not, or should not be the answer. ## Track Record Our team has played key roles on more than 10 GW of installed power capacity globally, across gas, coal, and renewable technologies. That experience includes: - A 1,200 MW combined-cycle gas plant in South Korea, where team members advised on commissioning strategy and high-efficiency thermal integration through Foster Wheeler - A 600 MW gas turbine facility in Texas, supported under Vistra Energy - A 1,450 MW supercritical coal facility in the Philippines with Aboitiz Power, where our senior advisor led site-wide commissioning across boilers, turbines, and seawater conversion systems - More than ten projects in China and Southeast Asia involving GE turbines, anthracite PC boilers, and CFB systems through Foster Wheeler's global deployment teams - U.S.-based modernization and startup leadership at plants such as Longview (770 MW, WV) and Sandow 5 (2x330 MW, TX) See full past experience → This is the foundation under Smartland's current portfolio of decentralized, BTM generation assets: modular 10 MW RICE units where ramp and rolling maintenance matter, combined-cycle gas turbines where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the load. ## Capital Discipline Smartland Energy is backed by Smartland, an established private equity platform active across real estate and energy infrastructure, and we run our development process with the same capital discipline applied to institutional-grade infrastructure investments. We integrate capital, generation technology, gas supply, permitting, land acquisition, and regulatory strategy under one roof rather than splitting them across uncoordinated counterparties. Schedule, cost, and contractual structure are managed against the same sheet of paper. We structure offtakes for diligence (clear POD boundary, revenue-grade metering, contractable SLA terms, defined remedies, and milestone-backed credit support) so procurement, finance, and lender review can move forward without re-engineering the package. ## Execution Power online approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed. Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. Active development includes site evaluations and bids in Ohio (Muskingum River and additional locations), Minnesota (Brainerd Hydroelectric clean repurposing evaluation), Virginia (Tazewell County), and other locations under review. We are engaged with regulators, local stakeholders, and policy bodies through industry symposiums, congressional delegations, and forums including the Ohio Energy Symposium, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and bipartisan briefings on Capitol Hill. Smartland Energy was an early investor in Hadron Energy, developer of the Halo Micro-Modular Reactor, and holds a memorandum of understanding with the company covering the potential deployment of Halo units across up to five qualified Smartland behind-the-meter power projects. We are now evaluating candidate locations for that program. Our siting criteria favor two types of land: retired or decommissioning nuclear generating sites, which bring existing transmission access, extensive site characterization, and host communities already familiar with nuclear operations; and remote parcels well removed from population centers. No site has yet been selected. None of Smartland's current gas-fired development projects is a candidate site for this program. Our near-term focus remains on bringing modular RICE and combined-cycle gas projects through development and into commercial operation. See current initiatives → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ai-driven-power-planning-why-multigenerational-projects-are-the-future-of-energy/ TITLE: AI-Driven Power Planning: Why Multigenerational Projects Are the Future of Energy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: AI infrastructure is forcing buyers and developers to plan power on multi-generational timelines. Connected portfolios beat single sites. ============================================================================== # AI-Driven Power Planning: Why Multigenerational Projects Are the Future of Energy ← All Industry NewsNovember 25, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News A new perspective is emerging in the power sector: the strongest energy systems aren't built one project at a time - they're built as connected portfolios. A recent POWER Magazine analysis, “How AI Enables Multigenerational Power Planning, and Why You Need It,” outlines why the era of isolated, single-site energy projects is ending. Instead, developers are shifting toward multigenerational planning: a strategy where each project builds on the last, sharing data, supply chains, permitting insights, and talent. It's not just efficient - it's a structural advantage. ### What Multigenerational Planning Means Traditional projects are treated as standalone efforts. But today's rising load from AI, manufacturing, and electrification, demands scale and speed that one-off builds simply can't deliver. POWER Magazine highlights how AI and digital tools now allow developers to: - Design repeatable project models - Create resilient supply chains across multiple builds - Shorten delivery timelines through shared workflows - Reduce risk by applying lessons learned across an entire project series This approach mirrors how tech companies build products, iteratively and at scale, rather than starting from scratch each time. ### Smartland Energy's Alignment Smartland Energy has already adopted this systems-first mindset. When we evaluate sites, fuel access, community needs, and infrastructure pathways, we're not looking at a single project in isolation - we're looking at how a cluster of projects can work together over time. For a buyer, this creates: - Faster delivery of reliable power across multiple sites - Better cost control as supply-chain and permitting lessons compound - Stronger alignment with communities and local markets - A clearer roadmap for long-term capacity expansion ### Why It Matters Now The U.S. grid is under unprecedented pressure. AI data centers, industrial reshoring, and electrification are increasing demand faster than utilities can build generation. The developers who succeed will be those who think in systems, not silos. Multigenerational planning isn't just a new method. It's becoming the operating model for behind-the-meter at scale. See current initiatives → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ai-pushes-mid-atlantic-power-prices-to-record-highs-goldman-says-elevated-costs-are-here-to-stay/ TITLE: AI Pushes Mid-Atlantic Power Prices to Record Highs. Goldman Says Elevated Costs Are Here to Stay | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Goldman Sachs concludes that AI-driven demand has reset Mid-Atlantic forward curves to elevated levels - likely structural. ============================================================================== # AI Pushes Mid-Atlantic Power Prices to Record Highs. Goldman Says Elevated Costs Are Here to Stay ← All Industry NewsJune 25, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News ## August 2024 Mid-Atlantic Region Power prices across the PJM grid surged 800% year-over-year, and this isn't speculation. Goldman Sachs says the jump reflects a new reality: AI data centers are rapidly outpacing grid capacity, and supply can't keep up. In PJM's latest capacity auction (2025–26 planning year), prices cleared at $269.92/MW-day - the highest in history. In key zones like Dominion (VA) and Baltimore Gas & Electric (MD), prices hit maximum caps of $444.26 and $466.35, with actual capacity shortfalls still unfolding. - Goldman's call: “Capacity prices have finally caught up with the generative AI data center load growth story.” This isn't just a utilities story - it's a structural dislocation between energy demand and available infrastructure in the Mid-Atlantic, one of the most economically active regions in the U.S. - Limited new supply: 4–5 years to bring new utility-scale capacity online - Policy friction: Maryland's ban on new fossil-fuel plants limits in-state buildout - Grid stress: AI clusters require 24/7 stability; volatility is no longer acceptable to the operators running them The result: high prices are the new baseline, and they're spreading beyond core metro zones. ## Where Smartland Energy Fits In At Smartland Energy, we're actively evaluating project sites in Tazewell County, Virginia - a zone adjacent to high-stress grid areas, but with greater development flexibility and local natural-gas access. This latest PJM auction reinforces why behind-the-meter generation, resilient site infrastructure, and local energy independence are no longer fringe - they're the procurement default for any buyer who cannot tolerate utility-side price volatility or capacity shortfall risk. If you're a buyer planning around: - The scale-up of AI and industrial compute - Power-price volatility on the grid - Grid reliability as a constraint on growth …this is the data point that says the procurement path is dedicated, behind-the-meter, contractable at the POD. Request capacity availability → · See how we structure offtakes for data centers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ais-soaring-electricity-demand-is-reshaping-the-energy-landscape/ TITLE: AI's Soaring Electricity Demand Is Reshaping the Energy Landscape | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: AI workloads are reshaping every part of the U.S. power picture - from siting to fuel supply to interconnection priority. ============================================================================== # AI's Soaring Electricity Demand Is Reshaping the Energy Landscape ← All Industry NewsJune 12, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News As artificial intelligence continues its rapid ascent, the energy required to power its infrastructure is emerging as a major concern for utilities, policymakers, and energy planners alike. Recent estimates suggest that AI systems, especially large language models, consume vast amounts of electricity. ChatGPT alone may use over 500,000 kilowatt-hours per day simply to answer user queries. Training larger models, such as GPT-3, has been shown to require as much electricity as 120 U.S. homes use in an entire year. ### A New Kind of Energy Load Unlike conventional computing tasks, AI requires intensive parallel processing across thousands of high-powered chips, usually in data centers designed specifically for machine-learning workloads. These data centers - often clustered in areas with abundant land and fiber-optic connectivity - can consume dozens of megawatts each, enough to power small cities. Northern Virginia, one of the world's largest data-center hubs, is projected to double its electricity consumption by 2040. Companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are securing gigawatts of new capacity for AI-driven cloud services and infrastructure development. ### Grid Capacity Under Pressure This spike in electricity demand is arriving during a broader transformation of the U.S. energy grid. Utilities are under pressure to retire fossil-fuel plants and transition to renewable sources such as wind and solar - technologies that, while cleaner, are also more intermittent and harder to dispatch on demand. In some cases, demand from data centers is delaying or displacing other types of grid connections. Georgia utilities, for instance, have struggled to meet power needs for AI projects without postponing residential and industrial hookups. The shift toward electrification - spanning electric vehicles, home heating, and now AI - is creating a supply-demand imbalance that energy planners did not fully anticipate. ### Policy and Planning Implications Energy policy at the federal level has largely focused on decarbonization and the expansion of renewables. However, experts argue that this approach may not fully account for the growing electricity needs of AI, which require stable, high-capacity, 24/7 power - something wind and solar alone may not reliably provide. The situation has prompted calls for a more balanced energy strategy that includes not only renewables but also dispatchable baseload resources, such as natural gas and advanced nuclear technologies. Some analysts warn that unless energy planning adapts to the new demands of AI infrastructure, bottlenecks, blackouts, or price shocks could occur as electricity use surges in ways that are both intensive and geographically concentrated. ### What This Means for AI Infrastructure Buyers For operators planning to deploy AI compute at scale, the implication is procurement-direct: utility-side power on the timelines AI deployment actually requires is increasingly unavailable. The path of least regret is dedicated, behind-the-meter generation - sized to your load, contractable at the POD, with a defined go-live date that does not depend on transmission build-out you cannot control. See how we structure power for data centers → · Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/baltimores-power-struggles-highlight-growing-grid-fragility/ TITLE: Baltimore's Power Struggles Highlight Growing Grid Fragility | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Baltimore's recent grid stress is part of a national pattern: T&D-side fragility is becoming a buyer-side reliability issue. ============================================================================== # Baltimore's Power Struggles Highlight Growing Grid Fragility ← All Industry NewsAugust 13, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News Baltimore and surrounding areas are facing an escalating grid reliability crisis. On July 21, PJM Interconnection - the regional transmission organization serving much of the Mid-Atlantic - took the rare step of requesting an emergency order from the U.S. Department of Energy under the Federal Power Act. The move was prompted by concerns of an “imminent electric reliability emergency” in the Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) zone, where generation supply is running thin. The warning comes after a series of outages and near-misses. Severe thunderstorms left nearly 80,000 customers without power, with some outages lasting up to two days. Then a key power plant disconnected from the grid, prompting BGE to urge customers to conserve electricity to prevent further strain. While weather damage played a role, critics point to years of deferred infrastructure maintenance, vegetation overgrowth, and policy decisions that have reduced the margin for error in an already-stressed system. For Smartland Energy, Baltimore's situation underscores a larger reality: urban grids, even in major metropolitan areas, are increasingly vulnerable to both predictable seasonal stress and sudden shocks. As demand grows, the path of least regret for sophisticated power buyers in the PJM footprint is to reduce dependence on contested utility-side capacity and contract for BTM generation with industrial-grade SLA terms and contractable availability at the POD. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/behind-the-meter-gas-equipment-lead-times-decide-who-powers-up-first/ TITLE: Behind-the-Meter Gas: Lead Times Now Decide Who Powers Up First | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Large combined-cycle plants take up to 6 years; aeroderivatives ~40 months. How gas equipment lead times are reshaping behind-the-meter data center power. ============================================================================== # Behind-the-Meter Gas: Lead Times Now Decide Who Powers Up First ← All Industry NewsOctober 6, 2026 - Smartland Energy Research - Industry News When grid queues stretched past five years, developers turned to on-site generation. Now the same developers are discovering that the equipment itself has a queue. The question for a VP of Data Center Development is no longer whether behind-the-meter (BTM) gas is faster than a transmission interconnection. It is which BTM technology can actually be delivered inside the program schedule. ### The lead-time ladder According to a September 28, 2026 analysis in Pipeline & Gas Journal, large combined-cycle gas plants now carry lead times of up to 6 years, small and medium frame turbines can be delivered within 2 years, and aeroderivative units run about 40 months. The same analysis projects 29.6 GW of BTM gas generation in the United States through 2030, with data centers representing roughly 88 percent of that demand. The fact worth carrying into a board deck: large combined-cycle gas plants are quoted at up to 6 years from order to delivery, small and medium frame turbines at under 2 years, and aeroderivatives at roughly 40 months, so the equipment class chosen can move a power date by years before any construction begins. ### Why BTM demand is outrunning supply Cleanview's behind-the-meter data center report counts 59 BTM data center projects with about 90 GW of announced capacity, or 25 percent of all planned US data center capacity. Of that, 92 percent (82 GW) was announced since January 2025. Only about 2 GW is operating, roughly 2.2 percent of the total, and Cleanview expects 2.8 to 3.2 GW online by the end of 2026. That gap between announcement and operation is the story. Ninety GW of ambition sits against a small number of turbine and engine factories. Five states hold 83 percent of proposed BTM capacity, with Texas leading by a wide margin, while Ohio leads under-construction capacity at 736 MW from Meta and EdgeConneX projects. ### The cost of choosing speed Speed has a price. Pipeline & Gas Journal reports that capital cost per unit of electricity can run up to 50 percent higher for smaller turbines than for larger ones. A developer who picks aeroderivatives or reciprocating engines to avoid a 6-year wait is paying for schedule, and should model it that way rather than discovering it in the first year of operation. Procurement behavior reflects the trade. Crusoe Energy ordered 29 GE Vernova 35 MW aeroderivative turbines, 10 of them for its Abilene, Texas campus, and is procuring about 750 MW of Bergen reciprocating engines, per the same report. That is a deliberate mix: several equipment families, several supplier queues, one load. Cleanview data shows Caterpillar supplying 33 percent of tracked BTM projects (8.8+ GW) and Bloom Energy 14 percent. ### Supply is expanding, but not on your timeline Manufacturers are adding capacity. GE Vernova plans a $160 million investment in Greenville, South Carolina by 2028, adding 650 workers, and Siemens Energy is restarting a Charlotte, North Carolina factory by 2028. Both land after most projects now being sited will have placed their orders. For a load needing power in 2028 or 2029, the relevant supply is what is already in a manufacturer's production slots, not what is being built. ### The regulatory clock runs in parallel Equipment is only one of two clocks. On June 18, 2026, FERC issued six Section 206 show cause orders, one each to PJM, MISO, SPP, CAISO, ISO-NE, and NYISO, requiring each to justify or revise its large-load interconnection rules, as summarized by Duane Morris. Those proceedings will reshape how co-located and BTM generation is treated at the grid edge. A project that locks equipment but not its interconnection posture has solved half the problem. Our comparison of grid interconnection versus BTM covers the permitting side in more depth. ### What to do with this Three adjustments follow for teams judged on time-to-power. First, reserve equipment early and treat the slot as the asset. A turbine position is worth more than a parcel that has no delivery date attached to it. Second, diversify the equipment mix. Phasing aeroderivatives or reciprocating engines first, with larger frames following, converts a single 6-year dependency into staged capacity. Third, ask every developer for the delivery documents, not the announcement: purchase orders, slot confirmations, and the commissioning schedule. That is how Smartland Energy structures dedicated BTM capacity for data centers and industrial loads, with equipment and permits assembled so power can be online in ~24 months from Notice to Proceed rather than waiting on a 5+ year queue. The era of treating BTM gas as an unconstrained shortcut is over. It remains the fastest credible path to firm power at scale, but only for buyers who underwrite the equipment queue as carefully as they once underwrote the interconnection queue. Reserve capacity → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/bring-your-own-power-washington-signals-a-new-rule-for-ai-data-centers/ TITLE: Bring Your Own Power: Washington Signals a New Rule for AI Data Centers | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Federal policy is shifting toward BYOP - buyers funding new generation that matches their incremental load rather than congesting the grid. ============================================================================== # Bring Your Own Power: Washington Signals a New Rule for AI Data Centers ← All Industry NewsMarch 2, 2026 - Victor F. - Industry News Two recent reports point to the same policy direction in Washington: large AI data centers may soon be expected to pay their own way, covering not only electricity usage, but also the broader infrastructure impacts tied to reliability and, in some cases, water usage. The Trump administration has framed this as a “ratepayer protection” approach. The basic idea is simple: if hyperscalers are adding massive new load to an already stressed grid, they should help fund the generation and upgrades required to support it, rather than shifting those costs onto households. ### What's Being Discussed While details are still developing, the themes are consistent: - Bring your own power: data centers may be pushed toward dedicated or behind-the-meter supply - Pay for resiliency: large loads may be required to fund reliability and upgrade costs - Water accountability: cooling-driven water use is increasingly part of the conversation - PJM focus: policymakers are exploring mechanisms that could tie interconnection and service to new generation funding and long-term power contracting ### Why This Matters for Buyers U.S. data center electricity demand has surged, with estimates suggesting it doubled from 2018 to 2024 and could triple by 2028. Meanwhile, capacity costs in markets like PJM have risen sharply, putting pressure on both the grid and consumer bills. If “bring your own power” becomes a real market expectation, it accelerates a structural shift: power built alongside the load becomes the default, not the exception. For sophisticated power buyers - hyperscalers, AI infrastructure operators, large industrial campuses - that shift means dedicated behind-the-meter generation moves from “alternative” to “baseline.” ### What This Means for Smartland's Buyers This policy direction strengthens the case for the work Smartland Energy is already doing for our buyers. As large users are pushed to secure dedicated supply and finance reliability, the developers best positioned to deliver are those who can integrate behind-the-meter strategy, speed-to-power, and procurement-grade contracting under one roof. - Behind-the-meter power for data centers → - Behind-the-meter power for industrial campuses → - Behind-the-meter power for defense installations → - Request capacity availability → Smartland Energy continues tracking how policy and market design are evolving, because it directly shapes where demand will go and how new power buyers will be served in the next phase of AI expansion. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/btm-power-faq/ TITLE: FAQ Hub | Smartland Energy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Answers to the questions data center, industrial, and defense teams ask about dedicated behind-the-meter (BTM) power: capacity, timelines, reliability architecture, SLA structure, and contracting. ============================================================================== # FAQ Hub Home/FAQ Hub This FAQ explains how our behind-the-meter power solution delivers scalable, reliable capacity at a defined Point of Delivery when utility infrastructure and timelines cannot support data center load growth. What problem are we solving for data centers? We solve the problem of getting large, reliable power when utility capacity, timelines, or transmission upgrades cannot keep pace with your load growth. What is the product? A behind the meter power supply delivered at a defined Point of Delivery (POD), structured as a contracted service with clear performance terms, metering, and remedies. How fast can power be online? We solve schedule risk by targeting commercial operation on a defined plan tied to Notice to Proceed, with schedule driven by permitting, equipment lead times, and site specific interconnect scope. How much power can you provide? We solve scalability constraints with a platform approach that can support campus buildouts from roughly 100 MW up to 1 GW, deployed in modular increments. Do you offer “Tier III certification”? No. We solve confusion by being direct: Tier certification applies to data center facility topology. We provide a power supply boundary that can support Tier III style architectures when paired with your internal UPS and standby generation design. What reliability are you actually committing to? We solve overpromising by contracting to a defined availability metric at the POD, with clear definitions for outages, exclusions, planned maintenance, and service credit or liquidated damage remedies. How do you handle planned maintenance without disrupting operations? We solve maintenance conflict by scheduling planned outage windows in advance, coordinating with your load profile, and structuring redundant generation blocks so maintenance can be executed with minimal impact. How do you handle unplanned outages? We solve recovery uncertainty by designing for redundancy and by implementing operational response procedures, spares strategy, and vendor service coverage aligned with the SLA. How do you protect power quality for sensitive IT loads? We solve power quality risk with engineered MV distribution, protection coordination, and step up and station service design that targets stable voltage and frequency at the POD under normal operating conditions. How do you measure and verify what is delivered? We solve auditability with revenue grade metering at the POD and logging of key operating and dispatch parameters to support invoice transparency and dispute resolution. What contract structures do you support? We solve misaligned economics by offering structures that match how data centers buy power, including availability based capacity payments, energy plus capacity hybrids, and indexed structures with defined pass throughs. How do you address curtailment or non take risk? We solve revenue and delivery ambiguity by defining curtailment rights, deemed energy or deemed capacity provisions where applicable, and clear settlement rules for dispatched versus available power. How is fuel price risk managed? We solve cost volatility with optional indexation, caps, collars, and hedgeable components so you can choose a risk posture that fits your procurement strategy. How do you address gas supply reliability? We solve fuel resilience by structuring firm service options where available, designing redundant on site regulation and metering trains, and coordinating upstream supply and pipeline interconnect scope as part of project execution. What happens if the utility grid goes down? We solve restart risk with black start capability for the plant and defined restoration procedures. Your facility ride through is primarily handled by your UPS and standby generation. Can the facility run islanded behind the meter? We solve resiliency planning by supporting islanded operation concepts where technically feasible, subject to engineering design, protection schemes, and regulatory requirements at the site. How do you integrate with the data center electrical architecture? We solve interface risk by defining a clean POD boundary, specifying voltage, fault duty, metering, and protection responsibilities, and aligning A and B delivery expectations at the demarcation. What is the approach to emissions and environmental compliance? We solve permitting risk by planning for air permitting, monitoring, and compliance reporting from day one, and by selecting equipment and controls consistent with required permit limits. How do you manage community and stakeholder expectations? We solve reputational and approval risk through early stakeholder engagement, clear noise and emissions planning, and local economic benefit framing aligned with the jurisdiction. What is your operating model after commissioning? We solve operational continuity by offering a structured O&M approach, including OEM backed service arrangements where appropriate, defined staffing, and maintenance execution aligned with SLA commitments. How do you handle spare parts and long lead replacements? We solve downtime exposure with an initial critical spares package, defined replenishment, and escalation pathways for outages tied to the SLA and vendor support terms. How do you secure control systems and operational technology? We solve OT security requirements with optional cyber isolated control architectures, segmentation between OT and external networks, and hardened access paths that can be tailored to large cloud operator security standards. Can you support waste heat utilization? We solve energy efficiency opportunities with optional CHP integration pathways, enabling waste heat recovery when there is a practical thermal offtake use case. How do you support phased campus expansion without stranded cost? We solve staging risk with modular deployment, allowing capacity to be added in increments while keeping earlier phases economically and operationally coherent. What information do you provide for diligence? We solve diligence friction with structured disclosures: one line electrical diagrams, metering and boundary definitions, fuel strategy, permitting plan, outage classifications, and a financial model that ties assumptions to outputs. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/btm-sla-explained/ TITLE: What a Contract-Backed BTM Power SLA Actually Covers | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: A plain-language summary of the service-level terms in a dedicated behind-the-meter power contract: Point of Delivery, outage classifications, remedies, metering, and credit support - written for procurement and lender diligence. ============================================================================== # What a Contract-Backed Power SLA Actually Covers Reliability claims are cheap. Here is what a Smartland behind-the-meter power contract puts in writing - the terms a procurement committee and a lender's technical advisor actually read. ## Contract, Not Marketing Most power-availability promises are uptime percentages with no contractual obligation behind them. A Smartland BTM offtake is structured for diligence: a clear Point of Delivery boundary, revenue-grade metering, contract-backed SLA terms, defined remedies, and milestone-backed credit support - so procurement, finance, and lender review can move forward without re-engineering the package. ## The Five Things the Contract Defines 1The Point of Delivery (POD) The defined physical and contractual boundary where power is delivered. Performance, metering, and the A/B power configuration are all defined relative to the POD - no ambiguity about where our responsibility meets yours. 2Outage classifications Not all interruptions are equal. The contract classifies outages so both sides know what counts, what is excused, and what triggers a remedy. 3Contractual remedies Defined consequences when performance terms are not met - the difference between a promise and an obligation a lender can underwrite. 4Revenue-grade metering Performance is measured with metering both parties and their financiers can rely on, so SLA compliance is a fact, not an argument. 5Milestone-backed credit support Credit structure tied to project milestones, so the commercial package stands up to procurement, lender, and investor diligence. ## Backed by the Right Architecture Contract terms only matter if the plant can meet them. The SLA sits on an N+2 reliability architecture - modular 10 MW RICE generation, segmented MV distribution, A/B delivery at the POD, UPS-backed controls, and black-start capability. The team behind it has delivered 10+ GW of generation. See the platform specification → ## Read the Full Brief These terms are summarized alongside the ~24-month NTP-to-power timeline and platform detail in our diligence brief - built to be forwarded to your procurement team or lender's technical advisor. Download: The 24-Month Path to Power (PDF) → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/category/industry-news/ TITLE: Industry News | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Analysis on the trends reshaping U.S. power markets, grid reliability, and dedicated power infrastructure. ============================================================================== # Industry News Analysis on the trends reshaping U.S. power markets, grid reliability, and dedicated power infrastructure. The decisions a sophisticated power buyer is making right now (should we sit in the interconnection queue, build behind the meter, or contract a third-party developer?) depend on a clear read of the forces moving the grid: queue length, transformer supply, AI demand growth, workforce constraints, federal policy on data-center cost allocation, and the financial architecture of the IRA. The posts below are how Smartland tracks and explains those forces. We write them because our buyers' internal review committees need them, and because our own development decisions are shaped by them. ### Behind-the-Meter Gas: Lead Times Now Decide Who Powers Up First Large combined-cycle plants take up to 6 years, aeroderivatives ~40 months. How gas equipment lead times are reshaping behind-the-meter data center power. October 6, 2026 · Smartland Energy Research Read more → ### Texas Freezes Data Center Permits: Time-to-Power Is Now Political Texas halted all data center environmental permits on September 21, 2026, widening an August grid-interconnection pause into a multi-agency freeze. What it means for siting and time-to-power. September 22, 2026 · Smartland Energy Research Read more → ### FERC's Co-Location Order: What the New PJM Rules Mean for Data Center Power FERC has directed PJM to rewrite the rules for co-locating generation with data centers and for behind-the-meter generation. What it means for getting power on time. June 18, 2026 · Smartland Energy Research Read more → ### Bring Your Own Power: Washington Signals a New Rule for AI Data Centers Federal policy is shifting toward BYOP - buyers funding new generation that matches their incremental load rather than congesting the grid. April 2026 Read more → ### Data Center Power Alternatives: Speed-to-Power When Utility Queues Average 53 Months Utility queues now average 53 months nationally; PJM and CAISO exceed 58. Behind-the-meter is the speed-to-power option for buyers who can't wait. March 2026 Read more → ### Eric Schmidt: U.S. May Need 92 GW More Power for AI Growth Schmidt's number lands the same place every honest demand-stack lands: AI is a structural demand event the grid is not built for. March 2026 Read more → ### Transformer Supply in 2026: A Constraint That's Reshaping Grid Development Lead times of 80–120+ weeks for large power transformers are reshaping how - and where - buyers can get firm megawatts. February 2026 Read more → ### The Power Industry's Hidden Constraint: Why Workforce Shortages Are Becoming a Grid Risk Skilled-trade and engineering shortages are now a project-schedule constraint as material as steel, copper, or transformers. February 2026 Read more → ### AI-Driven Multigenerational Power Planning: Why Long-Cycle Projects Are the Future AI infrastructure is forcing buyers and developers to plan power on multi-generational timelines. January 2026 Read more → ### Generative AI's Energy Consumption: Why Rising Demand Matters for Power and Infrastructure Generative AI workloads are concentrated, ramp-heavy, and 24/7 - exactly the load profile dedicated BTM generation is designed for. January 2026 Read more → ### Power Plant Noise Reduction: Why Modern RICE Plants Are Quiet Neighbors Modern enclosed RICE plants run materially quieter than equivalent open-frame turbine plants - a real factor in community acceptance and permitting. December 2025 Read more → ### Quiet, Efficient 214 MW Rice Power Plant Built for Communities A 214 MW RICE plant case study illustrating how modular gas generation can be sited near communities without the noise penalty of legacy infrastructure. December 2025 Read more → ### Fragile Grids & Rising Demand: Why Hardening Is No Longer Optional Aging T&D, climate stress, and rising demand make grid hardening a near-term operational requirement, not a long-term policy goal. November 2025 Read more → ### U.S. Hydrogen Ambitions Face Harsh Market Reality Hydrogen project economics are stretching as offtake commitments lag and equipment costs rise. November 2025 Read more → ### Baltimore's Power Grid Fragility & Reliability Crisis Baltimore's recent grid stress is part of a national pattern: T&D-side fragility is becoming a buyer-side reliability issue. October 2025 Read more → ### PJM Grid Maxed Out: AI Growth, Power Markets, and What It Means for Buyers PJM is the most pressured ISO in the country. The forward curve and queue length both signal a structural BTM opportunity. October 2025 Read more → ### Texas Grants Grid Operators Authority to Curtail Data Center Power During Crises Texas legislation gives ERCOT explicit authority to curtail large flexible loads in scarcity events - a signal of where the policy wind is blowing. September 2025 Read more → ### Why AI's Next Scaling Problem Is Measured in Megawatts Compute is scaling faster than power. The next constraint on AI is megawatts on a defined timeline. September 2025 Read more → ### Microgrids Are No Longer Niche - They're the Backbone of Resilient Decentralized Energy Microgrid deployments are accelerating across mission, industrial, and campus sites where utility reliability cannot be assumed. September 2025 Read more → ### AI Drives Record Mid-Atlantic Power Prices: Goldman Says Elevated Costs Are Here to Stay Goldman Sachs concludes that AI-driven demand has reset Mid-Atlantic forward curves to elevated levels - likely structural. August 2025 Read more → ### Pure Salmon Virginia Breaks Ground Again: Scaled Vision & Strategic Momentum A large industrial groundbreaking in Virginia underscores the pattern: industrial buyers are anchoring the next wave of dedicated power demand. August 2025 Read more → ### Grid at a Crossroads: Urgent Need for U.S. Energy Infrastructure Modernization The U.S. grid is at an inflection point - load growth, equipment supply, and aging infrastructure are converging on a tighter timeline. July 2025 Read more → ### AI's Soaring Electricity Demand Is Reshaping the Energy Landscape AI workloads are reshaping every part of the U.S. power picture - from siting to fuel supply to interconnection priority. July 2025 Read more → ### Power Surge Ahead: How Demand, Data & Decarbonization Reshape U.S. Utilities Three forces - demand growth, data-center expansion, and decarbonization - are reshaping how utilities build and how buyers procure power. June 2025 Read more → ### Explosive Power Demand Puts Grid Reliability in the Spotlight Demand growth across data centers, AI, manufacturing, and electrification is putting reliability under unusual operational pressure. June 2025 Read more → ### Tucson Electric Power Embraces Flexible Engine-Based Generation TEP's flexible-engine deployment validates the modular RICE thesis: dispatchable, fast-start gas as the backbone for grids absorbing AI and renewables. May 2025 Read more → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/category/newsroom/ TITLE: Newsroom | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: What Smartland is doing - site visits, regulatory engagement, partnerships, and public commentary. ============================================================================== # Newsroom What Smartland is doing - site visits, regulatory engagement, partnerships, and public commentary. For a development-stage power infrastructure company, visible activity matters. The posts below document where our team is on the ground (Ohio site evaluations, Tazewell County VA, Brainerd MN), where we are engaging at the policy level (Ohio Energy Symposium, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, bipartisan delegation on Capitol Hill), and the partnerships we are building (including our early investment in Hadron Energy and a planned program of up to five micro-modular reactor projects). Procurement and lender diligence teams should expect to find this kind of activity for any developer they take seriously - and to be skeptical of any developer they don't find it for. ### What We Heard at Our Upper Sandusky Community Information Session Residents came to meet our team, ask hard questions and tell us what matters to them. Here is what we shared, what we stand behind, and how the conversation continues. October 7, 2026 · Smartland Energy Read more → ### Smartland Energy Announces Strategic Partnership with Hadron Energy MOU with Hadron Energy on potential portfolio-scale deployment of Halo Micro-Modular Reactors across up to five Smartland behind-the-meter projects. April 29, 2026 · Matt Fritz Read more → ### What We Heard at the Ohio Energy Symposium: Why Buyers Should Pay Attention to Ohio's Power Pipeline Ohio's interconnection queue is stretching out, the BTM coalition is unusually broad, and the energy-community siting opportunity is real. March 2026 Read more → ### Smartland Energy CEO Attends Chicago Council on Global Affairs Event Engaging with global leaders on energy security and infrastructure modernization. October 30, 2025 · Victor F. Read more → ### Smartland Energy in D.C.: Putting Real World Power Challenges on the Hill CEO Vadim Kleyner spent the week in Washington as part of a bipartisan delegation, discussing reliability under rising load, speed-to-power, and permitting. October 2025 Read more → ### Smartland Energy Leaders Discuss Future of Behind-the-Meter Energy in Ohio with Vivek Ramaswamy Conversation focused on Ohio's pro-business policy environment, gas resources, available industrial-zoned land, and growing demand from data centers and advanced manufacturing. August 2025 Read more → ### Smartland Energy Explores Development Efforts in Virginia Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia sit inside the PJM footprint, with proximity to data-center growth corridors and access to natural-gas infrastructure. August 2025 Read more → ### Smartland Energy on Muskingum River Plant Potential Redevelopment Smartland submitted a redevelopment bid for the Muskingum River Plant. The Port Authority selected an alternate proposal; Smartland continues to engage on adjacent Ohio sites. August 2025 Read more → ### Smartland Energy Advances Site Evaluations in Eastern Ohio Eastern Ohio sits at the intersection of three procurement-relevant factors: existing gas pipelines, available industrial-zoned land, and energy-community bonus eligibility. August 7, 2025 · Victor F. Read more → ### Why We Walked: The Brainerd Hydroelectric Evaluation Smartland engaged with a real asset, completed real diligence, and walked when the math did not support the investment. August 2, 2025 · Victor F. Read more → ### Ohio Site Evaluation Update: Why the Midwest Is Active Development Geography for BTM Three things make Ohio worth a closer look for buyers evaluating large industrial or data-center loads: gas infrastructure, brownfield permitting, and aligned policy. August 2025 Read more → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/community/ TITLE: Straight Answers for Our Host Communities | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: The nine questions every community asks about a behind-the-meter power and cloud-computing campus (property values, noise, air, water, traffic, and more) answered in plain language, with real, verifiable examples. ============================================================================== # Straight Answers for Our Host Communities The nine questions we hear most often about a behind-the-meter power and cloud-computing campus, answered in plain language, with real examples you can verify yourself. When a power and cloud-computing campus is proposed near your town, you should have questions. Hard ones. We've heard them in every community we work in, at planning commission meetings, at kitchen tables, at the county fair. This page is our answer to the nine concerns we hear most often, in plain language, with real examples you can verify yourself. We don't ask anyone to take our word for it. Keep reading and you'll see why. 1. Will this hurt my property value?2. What does the town actually get?3. Will it be loud?4. What about air quality and my family's health?5. Will it drain our water?6. What will it look like?7. What about construction traffic, and after?8. What happens if it shuts down someday?9. Is this experimental technology? ## “Don't Take Our Word for It” When civic and school leaders in another Ohio community had these exact concerns about one of our projects, they didn't accept our assurances. In January 2026, their own elected officials and school leaders traveled to an operating plant of the same type (a reciprocating-engine generating station that has run for years next to a Michigan community) to see it, hear it, and judge for themselves. They walked the fence line. They stood outside while the engines ran. They asked the plant's operators, not us, what living next to it is actually like. They came back reassured. ### Come see one for yourself. We extend that same invitation to every host community. We will help arrange visits for local officials and residents to an operating facility so you can form your own judgment. Arrange a Site Visit(877) 313-5777 ## The Nine Questions Every Community Asks (And Our Answers) 1 ### Will this hurt my property value? The data from communities that already host these facilities says values hold, and in many cases keep rising. In Negaunee Township, Michigan, home values continued climbing after the F.D. Kuester Generating Station began operating. In Saline, Michigan, where one of the largest cloud-computing campuses in the country is under construction, area home values have kept rising. These are verifiable public records (the Zillow Home Value Index), not our projections. 2 ### What does the town actually get? Start with the contrast: as farmland, a typical project site generates only a few thousand dollars a year in property tax. A built campus changes that by orders of magnitude, millions of dollars annually in new tax revenue that funds schools, roads, police, and fire for a generation, plus construction jobs, permanent skilled jobs, and local contracting. And we go further. Our Community Generations Fundcommits a share of the project's profits to a permanent endowment for the host city's children, a seed set aside at birth for every child born to resident families, released at 18 for education, trade training, a first home, or starting a local business. The plant powers the community's future in the most literal sense. 3 ### Will it be loud? Modern reciprocating-engine plants are engineered for sound from the start: enclosed engine halls, acoustic treatment, and siting setbacks. The proof point is the Michigan plant our visiting delegation toured: it operates next to a community today, and the visitors stood outside the building while it ran. Sound studies are part of every project's engineering and permitting, and we share the results publicly. 4 ### What about air quality and my family's health? Our plants run on clean-burning natural gas (the same fuel as your furnace and stove) with modern emissions controls, and they are permitted under federal Clean Air Act standards enforced by the state EPA. Permit limits are public documents, emissions are monitored, and the permitting process includes public comment. Where our sites are located, counties are typically in federal attainment on all six criteria air pollutants, meaning the air already meets federal health standards, and our permits are designed to keep it that way. 5 ### Will it drain our water? No, and this is one of the biggest misconceptions about these projects. How a data center is cooled decides nearly everything about its water use. The old evaporative cooling-tower design sheds heat by boiling water off, and consumes one and a half to two million gallons a day. We do not use it. Our generation equipment uses sealed, closed-loop cooling, antifreeze and radiators, like your car, scaled up, and the computing side uses closed-loop air cooling with limited adiabatic assist. In Virginia, the largest data center market in the country, the legislature's own audit office found that 83 percent of data centers use the same amount of water as a large office building, or less. The difference is almost entirely the cooling choice. We publish the expected daily figures for every project. We are not tapping rivers, drawing down aquifers, or competing with farms and homes for water. 6 ### What will it look like? Low-profile industrial buildings with landscaped setbacks. The generating equipment sits inside an enclosed engine hall, and each engine vents through its own exhaust stack, so a row of stacks along the building is the most visible feature from a distance. What you will not see is the classic power-station silhouette: no cooling towers, no steam plumes, and no fuel tank farms, because the plant runs on pipeline natural gas and the engines are cooled by closed-loop radiators rather than evaporative towers. Final stack height is set during engineering and published in the air permit. Site plans and renderings are shared during the public process, and screening and buffering commitments are written into the approvals we apply for. 7 ### What about construction traffic, and after? Construction brings temporary truck traffic, and we plan haul routes with the county engineer to keep it off residential streets. Once operating, these are quiet neighbors: a modest permanent staff commuting like any other employer, routine fuel delivery by pipeline (not trucks), and occasional maintenance visits. 8 ### What happens if it shuts down someday? Decommissioning obligations are part of our commitments, the site is restored, not abandoned. The equipment itself holds significant salvage value, which means there is a built-in economic incentive to remove it properly. We put this in writing during the approval process. 9 ### Is this experimental technology? No. Reciprocating-engine power generation is proven, field-tested technology operating today across the Midwest and worldwide, the same engine families run in hundreds of installations globally. You can visit operating plants right now: - F.D. Kuester Generating Station: Negaunee Township, Michigan (operating for years beside a community) - A.J. Mihm Generating Station: Baraga Township, Michigan (Kuester's sister plant) - Apollo Power Generation Facility / Wood County, Ohio: 350 MW behind-the-meter gas serving a major data center, approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board in February 2026 - New Albany, Ohio: 520 MW of behind-the-meter gas generation powering a major campus in the New Albany International Business Park The Ohio examples are especially important: the same model, approved by the same Ohio regulators, on industrial and economic-development land. ## The Concern Behind the Concerns: “Will This Raise My Electric Bill or Strain the Grid?” This is where our model is fundamentally different from the data center stories making national news. Our projects are behind-the-meter: we build the power plant on-site, and it serves the campus directly. - We don't draw from the grid. The computing campus is powered by its own dedicated generation. - We don't raise your rates.No grid demand means no ratepayer impact. The cost concerns driving opposition elsewhere don't apply here. - We add resilience.On-site generation means the campus isn't competing with homes and businesses for electricity during peak demand. Communities elsewhere have fought data centers because those projects pull hundreds of megawatts from the same grid that powers their homes. Ours don't. That's not a talking point. It's the architecture of the project. ## How We Do Business With Communities 1 ### We show up. Our team attends public meetings in person and answers hard questions on the record. 2 ### We welcome the public process. Open hearings, public comment, published permits. We treat scrutiny as a feature, not an obstacle. 3 ### We put commitments in writing. Noise, screening, traffic routing, decommissioning. In the approval documents, not in press releases. 4 ### We invite verification. Site visits to operating plants for officials and residents. Third-party data over our own claims. 5 ### We invest in the community's future. The Community Generations Fund ties the project's success directly to the town's children. 6 ### We respond to every good-faith question. Reach our team at (877) 313-5777 or admin@smartland.com, or send us a note. Figures on referenced facilities are drawn from plant operators, engineering firms, industry publications, and the Zillow Home Value Index. Final design, emissions, and site details for any project are subject to engineering and the applicable state permitting process. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/contact/ TITLE: Contact: Reserve Dedicated Power Capacity or Book a Call | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Contact Smartland Energy: reserve dedicated capacity (power online ~24 months from NTP), book a 15-minute call, or investor inquiry. Reply in one business day. ============================================================================== # Contact Us The right next step depends on what you're trying to do. ## Office Headquarters 35350 Curtis Blvd Eastlake, OH 44095 Parent Company: Smartland 1221 Brickell Ave, Suite 940 Miami, FL 33131 Phone: (877) 313-5777 Email: admin@smartland.com Business Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST ## Three Paths Whether you are reserving capacity, arranging an introductory call, or evaluating from the capital side, use the path that fits. ### 1. Reserve dedicated capacity You have a real load, a real schedule, and need to know whether Smartland can serve it. The Capacity Availability form captures MW, go-live window, buyer type, and your biggest constraint. It routes straight to our development team. Request Capacity Availability → ### 2. Book a 15-minute introductory call You want to scope fit before submitting capacity requirements. We'll discuss your operating profile, schedule constraints, and which architecture (modular 10 MW RICE units vs. combined-cycle) is the stronger match for your load. (877) 313-5777 → ### 3. Accredited investor or capital-partner inquiry You are evaluating Smartland as a development partner from the capital side rather than the offtake side. Investor materials are gated and live separately. Visit Investors → ## Send Us a Message For inquiries that don't fit the three paths above, use the form. The message goes directly to our team (vadim.k@smartland.com and victor.f@smartland.com), not into a ticket queue. We respond within one business day. Don't fill this out: NameCompany EmailPhone How can we help?Send Message ### Need Dedicated Power? Reserve dedicated capacity. Power online approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed; initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. Reserve Power ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/data-center-power-interconnection-alternatives/ TITLE: Speed-to-Power: Data Center Interconnection Alternatives | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Utility queues now average 53 months nationally; PJM and CAISO exceed 58. Behind-the-meter is the speed-to-power option for buyers who can't wait. ============================================================================== # Speed-to-Power: Data Center Interconnection Alternatives ← All Industry NewsMarch 2, 2026 - Victor F. - Industry News Utility interconnection queues now average 53 months nationally. In PJM and CAISO, wait times exceed 58 months. For data center operators planning to bring new compute online, every month of delay translates into commissioning delay, missed tenant onboarding, and lost contracted revenue worth $800,000 to $1 million per megawatt per month. The math is brutal. A 100 MW data center sitting idle for 24 months represents $2 billion to $2.4 billion in foregone NOI for the operator. Traditional interconnection timelines now destroy the economics of new compute capacity before the first server goes live. Operators who treat power as a procurement checkbox lose deals to operators who treat power as a strategic lever. This article breaks down the four power alternatives reshaping data center development in 2026. ## Key Takeaways - Interconnection delays average 53 months nationally, with PJM and CAISO exceeding 58 months, up from under 24 months a decade ago. - Opportunity cost is staggering: $10M–$12M/MW/year in lost revenue × 24 months = $20M–$24M per MW in foregone cash flow. - Four power pathways offer different speed/cost trade-offs: traditional grid, behind-the-meter natural gas, fuel cells, and co-location with existing generation. - Speed costs money, but delay costs more: BTM solutions add $1M–$6M/MW in capex but eliminate $20M–$48M/MW in opportunity cost. - Regional risk varies dramatically: ERCOT offers 36-month timelines with BYOP mandates; PJM requires 58+ months or BTM alternatives. ## The Interconnection Bottleneck Interconnection queues are where data center deployments die. The national average wait time for utility interconnection hit 53 months in 2026. PJM leads the dysfunction at 58 months, followed closely by CAISO at 56 months. FERC Order 2023 reduced speculative projects by over 50%, but it didn't reduce wait times for projects in the queue. The bottleneck isn't process - it's transmission capacity. Data centers generate $10 million to $12 million per megawatt annually once operational. Every month of interconnection delay costs the operator $833,000 to $1 million per MW. On a 100 MW facility, a two-year delay erases $2 billion in potential revenue. ### Opportunity Cost of Interconnection Delay | | Delay (Months) | Revenue/MW/Year ($M) | Lost Revenue/MW ($M) | 100 MW Facility Loss ($M) | 12 | $10–12 | $10–12 | $1,000–1,200 | 24 | $10–12 | $20–24 | $2,000–2,400 | 36 | $10–12 | $30–36 | $3,000–3,600 Source: Revenue assumptions from S&P Global Market Intelligence and industry reports. Even accounting for 18–24 month construction timelines, interconnection delays push break-even out by four to five years. The financial models that justified the project at the time of greenlight do not survive a delay of that magnitude. The question isn't whether interconnection is slow. It's whether operators can afford to wait. ## Four Power Alternatives: A Decision Framework Operators now face a binary choice: wait for the grid, or build around it. Four distinct power pathways have emerged, each trading upfront cost against speed and certainty. ### Power Pathway Comparison Matrix | | Pathway | Timeline | Capex per MW | Best Use Case | Grid Interconnection | 40–60 months | $2M–$5M | Established markets, deferred timelines | BTM Natural Gas | 12–24 months | $3M–$6M | Speed-critical, multi-year grid delays | Fuel Cell Systems | 2–6 months | $5M–$8M | Ultra-fast deployment, bridge to grid | Co-Location | 18–36 months | $4M–$7M | Near existing plants, renewable mandates Sources: RMI, S&P Global, Brattle Group, Morgan Lewis 2026 reports. ### Traditional Grid Interconnection Still the default, but increasingly risky. The operator submits load interconnection requests, waits for studies, and pays for grid upgrades. Timeline: 40–60 months. Capex: $2M–$5M/MW. The advantage is no stranded assets. The disadvantage is unpredictable timelines and ballooning upgrade costs. ### Behind-the-Meter Natural Gas BTM natural gas generation bypasses the grid entirely. Modular turbines or reciprocating engines operate on-site as a microgrid. Timeline: 12–24 months. Capex: $3M–$6M/MW. Fastest large-scale solution available. VoltaGrid's 2.3 GW deployment for Oracle's Project Stargate in Texas is the flagship example. Requires air permits and fuel contracts. Becomes backup power if the grid eventually connects. (This is the architecture Smartland Energy delivers for data centers, industrial loads, and defense installations, structured in modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines, sized to your load.) ### Fuel Cell Systems Fuel cells (particularly Bloom Energy's SOFC systems) offer the fastest deployment: 50-day delivery, operational in 2–6 months. Capex: $5M–$8M/MW. Higher per-kW cost but modular and ultra-fast. Minimal permitting. Lower emissions than combustion turbines. Best used as bridge power or permanent off-grid solution. Brookfield Asset Management committed $5 billion in 2025 to deploy Bloom fuel cells at AI data centers. ### Co-Location with Existing Generation Co-location pairs data centers with new or existing power plants, leveraging the plant's grid interconnection. Operators partner with renewable developers to build solar/wind adjacent to the facility. Timeline: 18–36 months. Capex: $4M–$7M/MW. Avoids the load queue but limits site selection. Google announced a $20 billion plan in 2025 to co-locate data centers with new renewable projects. ## The Economics: Speed vs. Capex Every power pathway trades upfront cost against speed. BTM solutions cost $1M–$6M more per MWthan traditional interconnection. On a 100 MW facility, that's $100M–$600M in additional capex. But if that investment buys 24 months of timeline acceleration, it saves $2 billion to $2.4 billion in lost revenue. The capex delta is real. But the opportunity cost saved is an order of magnitude larger. Example: A 100 MW data center in PJM faces a 58-month interconnection timeline. The operator chooses BTM natural gas instead, deploying in 18 months. BTM costs $5M/MW vs. $3M/MW for grid interconnection - an incremental $200M. But BTM accelerates revenue by 40 months (58 – 18 = 40). At $11M/MW/year, that's $36.7M/MW in revenue pulled forward, or $3.67 billion for the facility. Net value: $3.47 billion after deducting the $200M incremental capex. ## Regional Risk: Not All Grids Are Equal - PJM (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest): 58 months average. Northern Virginia alone has 10+ GW in the queue. PJM is exploring “flexible interconnection” rules that allow faster connection in exchange for curtailment rights. Dominion Energy has publicly stated it cannot serve new large loads without multi-year transmission buildout. - CAISO (California): 56 months average. Environmental review (CEQA) adds 12–24 months. Local opposition to data centers in drought-prone regions adds further delays. - ERCOT (Texas): 36 months average, fastest in the country. But Texas Senate Bill 6 requires loads over 75 MW to provide demand flexibility or bring their own power. Most hyperscale AI campuses in Texas are choosing BYOP. - NYISO (New York): 52 months average. Urban transmission constraints limit capacity. Operator takeaway: PJM and CAISO deployments require BTM strategies or flexible interconnection commitments. ERCOT offers speed but mandates BYOP. Regional queue risk is now as critical as submarket fundamentals. ## Procurement Diligence Checklist Power risk is project risk. Operators evaluating new sites must scrutinize power strategy as rigorously as land, fiber, and tenant pipeline. ### 8 Critical Questions to Ask Before Site Selection What is the current interconnection queue position and expected in-service date? Look for queue number, study phase, and utility timeline. Anything beyond 36 months is high-risk. Have interconnection studies been completed? What were the assigned upgrade costs? Study reports reveal hidden costs. $10M+ in unexpected upgrades can sink a project. Does the facility have firm capacity commitments, or is power speculative? “Conditional” or “subject to upgrades” agreements are not firm. Insist on executed interconnection service agreements. If BTM generation is deployed, what is the fuel source and supply contract structure? Firm natural gas transportation contracts vs. interruptible supply makes or breaks reliability. What air quality permits govern on-site generation? Major source permits trigger PSD review and can take 18–24 months to modify. Is the facility designed for hybrid operation (grid + BTM) or fully off-grid? Hybrid offers flexibility but adds complexity. What happens to on-site generation if grid interconnection eventually completes? Does it become backup power? Can it be redeployed? Underwrite residual value at 40%–60% of original capex. What are tenant requirements for power reliability (e.g., 99.99% uptime)? AI training workloads tolerate brief interruptions. Financial services tenants do not. Match power strategy to tenant SLAs. ## Conclusion Power strategy is no longer a back-office function. It's a front-end procurement decision that determines whether a data center deployment works. Interconnection delays now exceed four years in the most congested markets. The opportunity cost - measured in billions of dollars - dwarfs the incremental capex of BTM alternatives. Operators who quantify opportunity cost as rigorously as capex, evaluate regional queue risk, and ask the right diligence questions will deliver compute capacity on the timelines their customers actually need. The data center buildout isn't slowing. But the grid isn't keeping up. Operators who master speed-to-power will win. ## Engaging with Smartland Energy Smartland Energy delivers dedicated behind-the-meter power for data center, industrial, and defense buyers facing the constraints described above. If you have a real load, a defined go-live window, and need to understand whether BTM is the right path, request capacity availability → or book a 15-minute scoping call →. See how we structure offtakes for data centers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/data-centers/ TITLE: For AI & Cloud - Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Dedicated power for AI factories, cloud, and data centers: 100 to 300 MW air-cooled, up to 400 MW per site liquid-cooled. Modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines, with CHP available where beneficial. ============================================================================== # Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power For AI Factories, Cloud, And Data Centers Dedicated behind-the-meter power for AI factories, GPU campuses, and cloud infrastructure, 100 MW to 300 MW per site. High-density liquid-cooled AI deployments can support significantly greater compute density and, in some cases, up to 400 MW of IT load within the same site footprint. Grid power is a structural risk for data centers. Decentralized, behind-the-meter generation built at your load converts that risk into dedicated infrastructure you can engineer, schedule, and contract for. Request Capacity Availability(877) 313-5777 Don't fill this out: NameCompany EmailPhone How can we help?Send Message The grid was not designed for always-on, zero-tolerance digital infrastructure at modern scale. Curtailments, voltage events, and unpredictable restoration timelines translate into SLA exposure. Behind-the-meter generation converts power from a shared, stressed network into dedicated infrastructure, letting you engineer redundancy, schedule maintenance, and keep compute online when the grid falters. We size every project to your actual load shape using modular 10 MW RICE units where ramp behavior and rolling maintenance matter most, or combined-cycle gas turbines where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the operating profile. CHP integration is available where the thermal economics justify it. Capacity range 100 to 300 MW per site for traditional air-cooled deployments; up to 400 MW per site for liquid-cooled high-density compute. Both architectures (modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines) scale to the upper end. Target delivery Power online approximately 24 months after Notice to Proceed, subject to permitting, interconnect scope, and final engineering. The schedule is driven by those factors and equipment lead times, not by multi-year transmission and substation upgrades. Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. Core operating principle On-site generation, battery energy storage, and intelligent control systems work together to continuously balance customer demand while delivering very high reliability, power quality, and operational flexibility. ## Proof Stack ### Modular redundancy built for availability The platform is designed around an N+2 reliability architecture featuring modular 10 MW RICE generation, segmented MV distribution, A/B power delivery at the POD level, UPS-backed controls, and black-start capability. This architecture supports maintenance without service interruption and eliminates single points of failure within the primary generation fleet. ### Contract-backed SLA, not marketing uptime Availability is defined at the POD and governed by clearly defined outage classifications, planned maintenance windows, exclusions, performance metrics, and contractual remedies suitable for procurement, lender, and investor diligence. ### CHP available where beneficial Combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk, capturing waste heat for adjacent industrial, agricultural, district-heating, or campus thermal loads where utilization economics justify it. ### A track record your diligence team can verify Our leadership team has commissioned 10+ GW across large-scale power assets, including West Offaly (150 MW), Lough Ree (100 MW), and GNPower Dinginin (2x725 MW). See past experience → ## Who Is This For This is a fit when utility timelines, curtailment risk, or cost-allocation pressure make grid-only power a schedule or SLA liability. When grid power is available on your timeline and the economics work, we will say so. Behind-the-meter generation is not the right answer for every site. - AI, HPC, cloud, and colocation operators expanding in constrained regions where utility upgrades are the critical path - Programs exposed to curtailments, voltage instability, or unpredictable restoration timelines that create SLA and reputational risk - Operators seeking more control over redundancy and maintenance than a shared grid can provide - Teams facing increased scrutiny of tax abatements, water usage, and local impacts, plus pressure to fund grid upgrades directly - Developers who need a credible, diligence-ready power solution to win tenants and financing - Campuses that want a defined POD boundary and contractable performance terms instead of system-average reliability ### If you need dedicated megawatts on a defined timeline, Request Capacity Availability. You'll get a clear answer on fit, next steps, and what information we need to propose terms. Initial capacity is targeted for Q3 2028 and is committed through capacity reservations. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## What You Get 1 ### Modular redundancy through 10 MW RICE units (or CCGT for steady baseload) We design the generation block and electrical distribution around redundancy. Modular RICE topology delivers N+2 natively with no single-machine concentration. Failure of one or two engines does not collapse delivery, rolling maintenance keeps the site online, and mean-time-to-repair is faster because the unit being replaced is smaller. Where steady high-efficiency baseload is the better fit, we design combined-cycle gas turbine plants instead. Both topologies are paired with segmented MV architecture and essential controls power backed by UPS and DC systems. 2 ### Availability that is defined, measurable, and enforceable We structure an SLA at the POD with explicit definitions for availability, outage hours, planned maintenance, force majeure, and remedies. This turns reliability into a procurement-grade commitment instead of a marketing claim. 3 ### A and B demarcation at the POD We define the technical and commercial demarcation at the POD, including voltage, protection responsibilities, metering, and routing assumptions that support A and B distribution inside the data center. 4 ### Fast start and load following for AI ramps The operating plan is aligned to your load shape and ramp behavior so power delivery keeps pace with compute commissioning and tenant onboarding. Modular RICE topology is particularly well-suited to volatile AI/HPC ramp profiles because individual engines can be brought online or taken offline against actual demand. 5 ### CHP available where beneficial Sites can be engineered so combined heat and power is added later without retrofit risk. For data center campuses with adjacent thermal loads (district heating, industrial steam offtake, or co-located manufacturing), this is a real path to higher total energy utilization without recommitting capital. 6 ### Transparent metering and settlement Revenue-grade metering at the POD and clear settlement rules reduce billing disputes, support audits, and simplify tenant pass-through structures. 7 ### A credible path through permitting and community scrutiny Noise, water, and local impacts are addressed early. Project disclosures and stakeholder engagement reduce late-stage schedule disruption. Modular RICE topology helps here too: modern enclosed RICE plants run quieter than the equivalent open-frame turbine, which materially reduces community-acceptance friction. 8 ### Policy and cost-allocation reality (why BTM matters now) The political narrative is shifting from "jobs and innovation" to "data centers raise local bills," which can quickly become enforceable policy. Expect increasing pressure for mandatory pay-your-own-way grid upgrades, take-or-pay style obligations for new generation built on your behalf, scrutiny of incentives, and faster backlash around water and local impacts. BTM power reduces dependence on contested grid buildouts and gives you more control over delivery, accountability, and operating outcomes. Note: We do not claim Uptime Institute Tier certification. Tier standards apply to data center facility topology. We provide a power supply boundary designed to support Tier III-style architectures when paired with your internal UPS and standby generation strategy. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## Process + Timeline Step 1 ### Share MW need, schedule, redundancy expectations, and site constraints. We confirm fit and the critical schedule drivers. Step 2 ### Align on POD boundary, A and B expectations, electrical integration, architecture (modular RICE vs. CCGT), and availability measurement approach. Step 3 ### Confirm permitting path, interconnect scope assumptions, and site constraints that affect schedule (noise, water, air, community requirements). Step 4 ### Issue term sheet and capacity reservation with defined milestones, credit expectations, and SLA framework. Step 5 ### Finalize engineering, long-lead procurement, commissioning test plan, and operational readiness program aligned to SLA reporting. Step 6 ### Build, commission, and operate with defined maintenance planning, incident response, and performance reporting. ## Common Questions (Data Centers) Below are the most common questions from data center procurement, engineering, and finance teams. Each answer is framed around the specific problem it solves. ### Strategy, Capacity, & Architecture #### What is the maximum capacity per site, and how does liquid cooling change it? Standard air-cooled deployments are sized 100 to 300 MW per site, matching the typical density envelope of conventional data centers and most local permitting baselines. Liquid-cooled high-density deployments can scale up to 400 MW per site. Liquid cooling concentrates more compute, and therefore more power demand, into a smaller physical footprint, which raises per-site MW load and makes the economics work for a larger generation set. Both architectures (modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines) scale to the upper end; the choice is driven by ramp behavior, redundancy preference, and operating profile rather than by capacity ceiling. #### Why is grid power a structural risk for always-on compute? Outages, voltage instability, curtailments, and restoration timelines create SLA exposure and reputational damage. BTM turns power into dedicated infrastructure so availability is engineered and measurable. #### What about schedule risk when utility upgrades are the critical path? BTM reduces dependence on multi-year transmission and substation upgrades. The schedule is driven by permitting, interconnect scope, and equipment lead times surfaced early. #### How we handle the question of modular RICE versus CCGT We propose architecture against your actual load shape rather than forcing one technology onto every site. Modular 10 MW RICE units are well-suited to volatile ramp profiles, staged capacity, faster mean-time-to-repair, and rolling maintenance. Combined-cycle gas turbines are well-suited to steady, high-efficiency baseload at scale. Both can integrate CHP where beneficial. #### What does N+2 mean in practice? With modular RICE topology, N+2 means the project is designed so the site can sustain its contracted delivery even with two engines out of service, subject to defined operating conditions and agreed outage classifications. With CCGT, N+2 is achieved through redundant trains and balance-of-plant design. In both cases, N+2 is a topology, not a slogan. #### Fast growth ramps for AI and HPC We align operating protocols and capacity blocks to ramp behavior so power delivery keeps pace with compute commissioning and tenant onboarding. ### Operations & Reliability #### Single point failure concerns Availability is driven by balance-of-plant and electrical topology as much as engines. Modular generation, segmented MV architecture, protection coordination, essential UPS-backed controls power, and a critical spares strategy reduce single point failures. #### What about A and B feed planning at the boundary? We define A and B demarcation expectations at the POD, including protection responsibilities, routing assumptions, and metering so your internal distribution can remain concurrently maintainable. #### On planned maintenance conflict Planned maintenance windows and notice requirements are defined in advance and coordinated around your operating calendar. Modular RICE topology supports rolling maintenance, so individual engines can be serviced without taking the site offline. #### What about voltage event risk that triggers IT impact? We engineer the POD interface with appropriate MV design, protection coordination, and operating protocols aligned to your sensitivity to voltage and frequency events. #### How we handle incident response uncertainty Operational playbooks define triage, escalation, restoration targets, communications, and reporting aligned to SLA terms so your team knows what happens at 2 a.m. #### On black start and restart planning Restoration procedures are defined, and black start capability supports controlled restart after major events and predictable commissioning and re-commissioning behavior. #### Spares and service lead times Availability suffers when critical components have long replacement timelines. A critical spares and replenishment strategy is planned, aligned to vendor service response. Modular RICE engines are smaller, more interchangeable, and faster to replace than large frame turbines, which materially reduces mean time to recovery. #### Curtailment exposure Curtailment rights, settlement rules, and availability accounting are defined contractually. This is critical in constrained regions where curtailments can be frequent. #### What about CHP? Sites are engineered so combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk. For data center campuses with adjacent thermal loads, this is a real path to higher total energy utilization later without committing capital today. #### How we handle O and M credibility Operating model, staffing expectations, maintenance planning, and reporting cadence are aligned to the SLA so reliability is backed by execution, not just design. #### Cybersecurity requirements for OT systems Optional cyber-isolated control architectures with segmentation and hardened interfaces can be tailored to the security standards large cloud operators and enterprise IT teams apply. #### What about the question of Tier III and Tier IV alignment? Tier certification applies to the facility topology. We support Tier III-style architectures by delivering a defined POD boundary and a contractable SLA, while your UPS and standby generation strategy governs ride-through and facility-level redundancy. ### Commercial, Permitting, & Diligence #### How we handle the gap between marketing uptime and contractable uptime We define an SLA at the POD with availability math, outage hour definitions, planned maintenance windows, exclusions, and remedies suitable for procurement and finance diligence. #### On procurement and finance diligence gaps We provide a clear POD boundary definition, metering approach, SLA framework, permitting plan, and milestone schedule suitable for internal approvals and lender diligence. #### Billing disputes and tenant pass-through Revenue-grade metering at the POD and transparent settlement definitions reduce invoice friction and enable audit-ready reconciliations and tenant pass-through structures. #### What about fuel price volatility? Pricing can be fixed, indexed, capped, collared, or hedged depending on how you want to allocate fuel and basis risk. #### How we handle the question of who owns what risk at the POD The POD demarcation defines equipment responsibility, protection responsibility, outage classification, and communications requirements so there is no ambiguity in performance accounting. #### On expansion staging without stranding early capacity Capacity is delivered in modular 10 MW increments so you can match commitments to real tenant and compute growth timing and avoid overbuying early. Modular RICE topology makes this especially clean: additional 10 MW units are added as the load grows. #### What about regulatory and political cost-allocation risk? In many markets, data centers are increasingly framed as a driver of local rate pressure. That can become mandatory grid upgrade funding, take-or-pay obligations for new generation built on your behalf, and stricter scrutiny of incentives and local impacts. BTM reduces dependence on contested grid buildouts. #### How we handle incentive and abatement scrutiny risk We plan for higher scrutiny on incentives and local impacts. Project disclosures and stakeholder engagement are structured early to avoid late-stage schedule disruption. #### On water and local impact objections Water, noise, and community impacts are common permitting leverage points. Site design and mitigation planning address these early. #### How we handle diligence friction We provide the technical boundary, commercial structure, and milestone plan needed to move from exploratory discussions to a term sheet and defined execution path. ## Closing Summary Smartland Energy develops dedicated BTM power for data centers that need schedule certainty and higher availability in constrained regions. Our core offering is sized in modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp, native N+2, and rolling maintenance, with combined-cycle gas turbine architectures available where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the operating profile. CHP is available where beneficial, with revenue-grade metering at a defined Point of Delivery, contractable availability terms, and optional cyber-isolated controls tailored to site requirements. Development activity is underway in Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/defense/ TITLE: For Defense - Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Dedicated 100 to 300 MW on-site for defense installations and mission-critical loads. Island-mode capable. EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, and ERCIP acquisition pathways. ============================================================================== # Dedicated BTM Power For Defense Installations And Mission-Critical Loads Dedicated 100 to 300 MW on-site for defense installations and mission-critical loads. Island-mode capable. EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, and ERCIP acquisition pathways. Grid power is a mission liability when restoration may be slow, partial, or unavailable. Dedicated on-site generation puts installation power under your control instead of a utility's restoration sequence. Request Capacity Availability(877) 313-5777 Don't fill this out: NameCompany EmailPhone How can we help?Send Message For defense installations and the critical defense industrial base, grid power is a mission liability. The grid was not designed for installation resilience standards, mission-critical uptime, or contested scenarios where utility restoration may be slow, partial, or unavailable. Dedicated behind-the-meter generation built at the load converts power from a shared, exposed network into decentralized, installation-controlled infrastructure. We size it in modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp, native N+2, and rolling maintenance, or as combined-cycle gas turbine plants where high-efficiency steady baseload best fits the mission profile. CHP is available where beneficial. Target delivery Power online approximately 24 months after Notice to Proceed, subject to permitting, interconnect scope, acquisition pathway (EUL, PPA, or direct), and final engineering. Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. Core operating principle On-site generation, battery energy storage, and intelligent control systems work together to continuously balance customer demand while delivering very high reliability, power quality, and operational flexibility. ## Proof Stack ### Modular resilience built for mission assurance Modular 10 MW RICE units deliver native N+2 redundancy with no single-machine concentration. Combined-cycle gas turbine architectures are available where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the mission. Both topologies support island operation, segmented MV distribution, A and B demarcation at the POD, UPS-backed controls power, and black start. ### CHP available where beneficial Combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk, capturing waste heat for billeting, hangar operations, maintenance shops, dining facilities, and other thermal loads where utilization economics justify it. ### Cyber-isolated control architecture Optional cyber-isolated control systems with network segmentation and hardened interfaces, tailored to installation OT security expectations and aligned to NIST SP 800-82 guidance for industrial control systems. ### 10+ GW team track record Leadership team with experience commissioning 10+ GW across large-scale power assets, including GNPower Dinginin (2x725 MW), West Offaly (150 MW), and Lough Ree (100 MW). See past experience → ## Who Is This For This is a fit when grid dependence is a mission risk, when utility restoration cannot be relied on, or when installation resilience requirements exceed what shared infrastructure can provide. - Defense installations with mission-critical loads where grid-only supply is operationally untenable - Critical defense industrial base manufacturers facing schedule, uptime, or supply-chain pressure - Federal R&D facilities, national laboratories, and joint test ranges with concentrated electrical loads - Combatant command nodes and joint bases requiring island-mode capability and predictable restoration - Installations with stable thermal demand where optional CHP lowers total energy cost over the contract life - Mission planners who need a defined POD boundary and contractable performance terms instead of utility-average reliability - Programs evaluating EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, ERCIP, or direct procurement structures and need a developer that can speak to all of them ### If installation resilience and grid risk are blocking your mission timeline, Request Capacity Availability. You'll get a clear answer on fit, next steps, and what information we need to propose terms. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## What You Get 1 ### Modular generation engineered for island operation Capacity is structured around your installation load shape and mission profile. Modular 10 MW RICE units support staged capacity growth, rolling maintenance, and native N+2 without single-machine concentration. Combined-cycle plants are used where steady high-efficiency baseload is the better fit. Both architectures are designed to operate islanded from the utility when the grid is unavailable. 2 ### Mission-grade availability that is defined and enforceable We structure availability terms at the POD with explicit definitions for outage hours, planned maintenance, exclusions, and remedies suitable for federal acquisition review. This turns reliability from a marketing claim into a contractable commitment your contracting officer and resilience program can underwrite. 3 ### A and B demarcation at the POD The technical and commercial demarcation is defined at the POD, including voltage, protection responsibilities, metering, and routing assumptions that support concurrently maintainable A and B distribution inside the installation. 4 ### CHP available where beneficial Sites can be engineered so combined heat and power is added later without retrofit risk. For installations with stable thermal demand (billeting, hangars, maintenance shops, dining, central heating), this is a real economic lever and a path to higher energy security per dollar. 5 ### Cyber-isolated controls and OT security alignment Optional cyber-isolated control architectures with network segmentation, hardened interfaces, and physical separation from installation IT networks. Designed to align with NIST SP 800-82 guidance and Section 889 supply-chain expectations. Specific compliance scope is determined per acquisition pathway. 6 ### Black start and predictable re-energization Restoration procedures are defined, and black start capability supports controlled restart after major events, critical for installations that cannot wait on utility-system-wide restoration sequencing. 7 ### Fuel security and dual-fuel optionality On-site fuel storage strategy, pipeline redundancy where available, and dual-fuel configurations are planned to reduce fuel-supply single points of failure during contingency operations. 8 ### Procurement-grade documentation aligned to federal acquisition pathways Clear POD boundary definition, metering approach, SLA framework, permitting plan, and milestone schedule formatted for EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, ERCIP, or direct-procurement review. Credit-backed milestones structured to match federal contracting expectations. 9 ### Supply-chain posture aligned to FAR and DFARS Supply chain, equipment sourcing, and subcontracting plans are structured with FAR and DFARS expectations in mind, including Buy American Act, Berry Amendment where applicable, Trade Agreements Act, and Section 889 prohibitions on covered telecommunications and OT components. Note: We do not claim a DoD Authorization to Operate, FedRAMP authorization, specific UFC certification, or CMMC certification at this time. Authorization scope, supply-chain compliance documentation, and facility-level certification are determined per installation, acquisition pathway, and contract scope. We design and document the dedicated power supply boundary to support installation resilience standards including UFC 3-540-08 and DoDI 4170.11 expectations when paired with your facility-side controls, continuity strategy, and certified components. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## Process + Timeline Step 1 ### Share MW need, mission criticality, target go-live, redundancy expectations, and site constraints. We confirm fit and the critical schedule drivers. Step 2 ### Align on POD boundary, A and B expectations, electrical integration, cyber isolation requirements, and availability measurement approach. Step 3 ### Confirm permitting path, acquisition pathway (EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, ERCIP, or direct), interconnect scope assumptions, and site constraints that affect schedule (noise, water, air, environmental review, community requirements). Step 4 ### Issue term sheet and capacity reservation with defined milestones, credit expectations, SLA framework, and supply-chain compliance scope. Step 5 ### Finalize engineering, long-lead procurement, commissioning test plan, operational readiness program, and SLA reporting infrastructure aligned to federal contracting requirements. Step 6 ### Build, commission, and operate with defined maintenance planning, incident response, and performance reporting. ## Common Questions (Defense) Below are the most common questions from installation energy offices, defense industrial base operators, and federal contracting teams. Each answer is framed around the specific problem it solves. ### Strategy, Schedule, & Architecture #### Grid dependence on installations where mission cannot tolerate outage Outages, voltage instability, curtailments, and unpredictable utility restoration create mission risk. BTM with island capability turns power into installation-controlled infrastructure so availability is engineered, not inherited. #### What about schedule risk when utility upgrades are the critical path? BTM reduces dependence on multi-year transmission and substation upgrades. Schedule is driven by permitting, interconnect scope, and equipment lead times surfaced early, with power targeted online approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed. #### How we handle what N+2 actually means in modular topology With modular 10 MW RICE units, the project is designed so the installation can sustain its contracted delivery even with two engines out of service, subject to defined operating conditions and agreed outage classifications. N+2 is a topology, not a slogan. #### On when CCGT is the better fit than modular RICE For very large, steady-state mission loads, combined-cycle gas turbine plants deliver high thermal efficiency at scale. We size and propose architecture against your actual load shape rather than forcing one technology onto every site. #### What about fast growth ramps for emerging mission loads? Whether the new load is AI compute, additive manufacturing, electronic warfare ranges, or directed-energy test infrastructure, generation blocks and operating protocols are aligned to the actual ramp rather than nameplate assumptions. ### Operations, Reliability, & Security #### Single-point-failure concerns Modular generation, segmented MV architecture, protection coordination, essential UPS-backed controls power, and a critical spares strategy reduce single points of failure across both electrical and mechanical systems. #### What about A and B feed planning at the boundary? A and B demarcation expectations are defined at the POD, including protection responsibilities, routing assumptions, and metering, so installation distribution can remain concurrently maintainable. #### On planned maintenance conflict Planned maintenance windows and notice requirements are defined in advance and coordinated around operational tempo. Modular RICE topology supports rolling maintenance, so individual engines can be serviced without taking installation power offline. #### Curtailment exposure Curtailment rights, settlement rules, and availability accounting are defined contractually rather than inherited from utility tariffs. #### What about incident response uncertainty? Operational playbooks define triage, escalation, restoration targets, communications, and reporting aligned to SLA terms so the installation team knows exactly what happens at 2 a.m. #### How we handle black start and re-energization Restoration procedures are defined, and black start capability supports controlled restart after major events, including utility-side blackouts and predictable commissioning and re-commissioning behavior. #### On fuel security and on-site storage Fuel-supply strategy includes pipeline redundancy where available, on-site storage planning, and dual-fuel configurations as appropriate to the mission contingency profile. #### Cyber-isolated controls aligned to OT security Optional cyber-isolated control architectures segregate plant controls from installation IT networks, with hardened interfaces and Section 889 supply-chain awareness on covered components. #### What about spares and service lead times? A critical spares and replenishment strategy is planned, aligned to vendor service response. Modular RICE topology means individual engines are smaller, more interchangeable, and faster to replace than large frame turbines, reducing mean time to recovery. ### Commercial, Permitting, & Federal Acquisition #### How we handle the gap between marketing uptime and contractable uptime We define an SLA at the POD with availability math, outage hour definitions, planned maintenance windows, exclusions, revenue-grade metering, and remedies suitable for federal acquisition review. #### How we handle fuel price volatility Pricing can be fixed, indexed, capped, collared, or hedged depending on how you want to allocate fuel and basis risk inside the offtake. #### On who owns what risk at the POD The POD demarcation defines equipment responsibility, protection responsibility, outage classification, and communications requirements so there is no ambiguity in performance accounting. #### Expansion staging without stranding early capacity Modular 10 MW units let capacity grow with the mission. You can match commitments to real load growth and avoid overbuying early. #### How we handle community impact and local stakeholder pressure Noise, traffic, water, and local impact planning are addressed early. Project disclosures and stakeholder engagement reduce late-stage schedule disruption around base-adjacent communities. #### On environmental compliance planning gaps Permitting scope, monitoring, and reporting are planned early. Compliance responsibilities are defined to avoid late-stage surprises during NEPA, air permitting, or installation environmental review. #### EUL, PPA, ESPC, UESC, ERCIP, and direct-procurement structuring We can speak to multiple federal contracting pathways and structure terms to match the acquisition vehicle the installation, MAJCOM, or service-level energy office prefers, rather than forcing one structure onto the site. #### What about Buy American and DFARS supply-chain expectations? Equipment sourcing and subcontracting plans are structured with Buy American Act, Berry Amendment where applicable, Trade Agreements Act, and Section 889 in mind, with documentation suitable for contracting-officer review. #### How we handle diligence friction Clear POD boundary, metering approach, SLA framework, permitting plan, supply-chain compliance scope, and milestone schedule are packaged for installation energy offices, contracting officers, and federal review. ## Closing Summary Smartland Energy develops dedicated on-site power for defense installations, defense industrial base manufacturers, and federal mission facilities that need installation resilience, schedule certainty, and mission-grade availability when grid-only supply is a mission liability. Our core offering is sized in modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp, native N+2, and rolling maintenance, with combined-cycle gas turbine architectures available where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the mission. CHP is available where beneficial, with optional cyber-isolated controls tailored to installation requirements. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/energy-credits/ TITLE: Energy Credits and the BTM Offtake | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: How federal and state credits affect dedicated behind-the-meter power - and how Smartland structures them inside the offtake. ============================================================================== # Energy Credits and the BTM Offtake How federal and state credits affect dedicated behind-the-meter power - and how Smartland structures them inside the offtake so the value flows to the right party. Federal energy credits matter to the BTM buyer in two ways. First, they affect the levelized cost of the gas plant and any layered solar or storage - which flows through to your delivered energy price. Second, transferability and direct-pay rules under the Inflation Reduction Act changed who can monetize which credit, which materially affects how an offtake is structured. This page describes the credits relevant to a Smartland offtake and the structural points your procurement and finance team will want to evaluate. This is not tax advice. It's a buyer's-guide map of the credits we actually have to engineer around when structuring a BTM contract. ## Federal Credits Relevant to BTM ### Section 48E - Clean Electricity Investment Credit The post-2024 successor to the legacy ITC. Provides an investment tax credit for qualified clean electricity facilities placed in service after December 31, 2024. For a BTM offering, 48E is most directly relevant to layered solar and battery storage components of the project. Gas-fired generation does not qualify for the base 48E unless paired with carbon capture meeting the prescribed emissions threshold. Bonus adders are available for projects meeting domestic content, energy community, and prevailing wage / apprenticeship requirements. ### Section 45Y - Clean Electricity Production Credit The post-2024 successor to the legacy PTC. Per-kilowatt-hour production credit for qualifying zero-emission electricity. Like 48E, the gas-fired portion of a Smartland project does not qualify on its own; layered solar typically does. 45Y and 48E are mutually exclusive on the same facility - the project sponsor elects which credit applies. ### Section 45Q - Carbon Sequestration Credit Available where gas generation is paired with qualified carbon capture and sequestration. We track 45Q because it is the most direct federal mechanism for monetizing decarbonization investment on a gas plant. We structure projects so a future CCS retrofit is economically evaluable when offtaker preferences and policy support align. ### Section 45U - Zero-Emission Nuclear Production Credit Per-kilowatt-hour credit for electricity from existing nuclear plants, those that began supplying power before August 16, 2022. It does not apply to new reactors. New micro-modular reactor deployments, including the up to five future projects Smartland is evaluating through its investment in Hadron Energy, would instead be assessed under the technology-neutral 45Y production credit or 48E investment credit. ### Section 45X - Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit Per-unit production credit for domestically manufactured clean energy components - solar panels, batteries, wind components, critical minerals. Relevant to the supply-chain side of the project, particularly for offtakers that have domestic-content commitments to honor or want to align procurement with Buy American / Trade Agreements Act expectations. ### Section 6418 - Transferability The IRA introduced a regime allowing certain energy credits to be sold for cash to unrelated taxpayers. This materially changes how an offtake is structured: a project that generates 48E or 45Y credits can monetize them through a transfer to a third-party buyer, with the proceeds either retained by the developer or shared with the offtaker depending on contract terms. Smartland structures offtakes to specify, up front, how transferable credit value is allocated. ### Section 6417 - Direct Pay Allows tax-exempt entities (federal agencies, tribes, state and local governments, public power, certain nonprofits) to receive direct cash payments in lieu of tax credits. Most directly relevant to Smartland's defense and federal-mission verticals, where direct pay can flow credit value to a federal offtaker that has no tax appetite to absorb a credit through traditional means. ### Bonus Credits - Domestic Content Bonus - additional 10% credit value where the project meets domestic-content thresholds for steel, iron, and manufactured products - Energy Community Bonus- additional 10% where the project is sited in an energy community (former coal, oil, or gas employment areas, brownfields, or census tracts with closed coal capacity). Smartland's Ohio and West Virginia development activity is being evaluated against energy community criteria as part of site selection. - Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship - required to access the full 30% base credit on most clean-energy provisions; failure to meet drops the base to 6%. ## State-Level Programs Relevant to Smartland's Active Geographies State-level support is geography-specific and changes frequently. The programs we currently track most closely align with our active development geography: ### Ohio Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) under Ohio's renewable energy standard, PACE financing for behind-the-meter projects, and state-level economic development incentives (JobsOhio, regional development financing) for projects siting in energy communities. Ohio is currently a primary development geography for Smartland. ### Texas Chapter 313 successor programs and county-level abatements, state-level support for grid-supporting BTM projects, and ERCOT-specific market structures that affect any grid-interactive layered components. ### Virginia State-level programs aligned to data center growth, Tazewell County and broader Southwest Virginia economic development support, and PJM-region considerations for any grid-interactive components. ### Pennsylvania Energy community bonus opportunities tied to former coal sites, state-level brownfield redevelopment incentives, and PJM-region market structures. We add or adjust state-level coverage as our active development geography evolves. ## Structuring Credit Value Inside the Offtake For a procurement or finance team evaluating a Smartland offtake, the most important structural questions are: - Which credits will the project actually qualify for? Driven by architecture (RICE vs. CCGT), layered components (solar / storage), siting (energy community status), and supply chain (domestic content compliance). - Who monetizes them? The developer can retain credits, transfer them under Section 6418, or, for tax-exempt offtakers, pass them through under Section 6417 direct pay. - How is credit value reflected in the delivered energy price? Credits can be retained by the developer (reflected in lower required PPA price), shared with the offtaker, or fully passed through depending on contract structure. - What happens if credits change? Offtake terms specify which party bears the risk of legislative change, recapture, or qualification challenges. We engineer these answers into the offtake from the term-sheet stage so they are not negotiated under deal-close pressure. ## Disclaimer This page is a buyer's map, not tax advice. Final credit qualification, structuring, monetization mechanics, and tax outcomes depend on facts specific to each project and offtaker, applicable IRS guidance at the time of placed-in-service, and the offtake structure ultimately executed. Smartland engages tax counsel and project-specific advisors on every offtake; offtakers should engage their own tax advisors as part of diligence. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/eric-schmidt-warns-america-may-need-92-gw-more-power-for-ai/ TITLE: Eric Schmidt Warns: America May Need 92 GW More Power for AI | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Schmidt's number lands the same place every honest demand-stack lands: AI is a structural demand event the grid is not built for. ============================================================================== # Eric Schmidt Warns: America May Need 92 GW More Power for AI ← All Industry NewsFebruary 23, 2026 - Victor F. - Industry News Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is warning that the U.S. may need an additional 92 gigawatts of electricityto keep up with AI growth. His point is simple: AI isn't just a software boom anymore - it's a power and infrastructure challenge. Data centers run 24/7, require heavy cooling, and are scaling fast. Recent projections cited in coverage suggest U.S. data centers used 4.4% of electricity in 2024 and could reach 12% by 2028, with higher power costs likely in data-center-heavy markets. Some tech firms are already responding by pledging to cover their data center electricity costs, while others are exploring longer-shot ideas like space-based data centers powered by solar. ### Why it matters for buyers The pace of AI adoption is now colliding with the slower reality of grid buildout. The next phase of AI growth will depend on where power can be secured, how fast infrastructure can be added, and how operators procure it. For data center, AI compute, and adjacent industrial buyers, the implication is direct: dedicated behind-the-meter generation is moving from a niche option to a mainstream procurement path. Smartland Energy continues tracking how digital demand is reshaping energy markets, grid planning, and behind-the-meter strategy. See how we structure dedicated power for data center buyers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/evaluation-of-the-brainerd-hydroelectric-power-plant/ TITLE: Why We Walked: The Brainerd Hydroelectric Evaluation | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Smartland engaged with a real asset, completed real diligence, and walked when the math did not support the investment. ============================================================================== # Why We Walked: The Brainerd Hydroelectric Evaluation ← All NewsroomAugust 2, 2025 - Victor F. - Newsroom In early 2024, the Smartland Energy team conducted an in-depth evaluation of the Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant in Brainerd, Minnesota. The goal: to explore the feasibility of acquiring and modernizing the century-old facility to increase its capacity and supply clean energy directly to behind-the-meter customers. Over several months, our team conducted extensive technical assessments, regulatory reviews under the existing FERC license (P-2533), and financial modeling. While the plant showed potential for modernization and expansion, our analysis ultimately determined that the investment did not meet Smartland's strategic and operational criteria at this time. Smartland declined to proceed. For procurement, finance, or lender teams evaluating Smartland on a different opportunity, the Brainerd evaluation is a useful artifact. We engaged with a real asset, completed real diligence, and walked when the math did not support the investment. The same discipline runs through every offtake we structure. See full project page → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/expanding-ohio-site-evaluations/ TITLE: Ohio Site Evaluation Update: Why the Midwest Is Active Development Geography for BTM | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Three things make Ohio worth a closer look: gas infrastructure, brownfield permitting, aligned policy environment. ============================================================================== # Ohio Site Evaluation Update: Why the Midwest Is Active Development Geography for BTM ← All NewsroomAugust 2025 - Newsroom Smartland Energy continues to advance its strategy of developing reliable, locally sited power infrastructure across the Midwest. This week, our team visited another prospective project location in central Ohio. While details remain confidential, the evaluation underscores Ohio's growing role as a hub for dedicated behind-the-meter power development. For buyers evaluating where to site large industrial or data-center loads, three things make Ohio worth a closer look: - Extensive natural-gas transmission infrastructure - proximity to gas supply is one of the four pillars of BTM siting; Ohio has it. - Industrially zoned sites with brownfield permitting precedent - including former coal sites that qualify for federal energy-community bonus credits. - Aligned policy environment - state-level support for dedicated generation serving data centers, manufacturing, and advanced industry. Smartland is actively evaluating multiple candidate sites across the state as part of its mission to deliver resilient, behind-the-meter power where it's needed most. See current initiatives → · Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/explore-development-efforts-in-virginia/ TITLE: Smartland Energy Explores Development Efforts in Virginia | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia sit inside the PJM footprint, with proximity to data-center growth corridors and access to natural-gas infrastructure. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy Explores Development Efforts in Virginia ← All NewsroomAugust 2025 - Newsroom Smartland Energy leadership recently visited Tazewell County, Virginia, to explore potential sites for future power infrastructure development. The visit marks another step in Smartland's broader strategy to expand dedicated, behind-the-meter power across geographies where buyer demand and site economics align. During the visit, the Smartland team met with local officials and economic-development leaders to assess the county's infrastructure and discuss pathways for energy investment that align with local economic priorities. As part of its national development strategy, Smartland Energy is focused on building dedicated power assets that support industrial growth, data infrastructure, and defense installations, with the same core operating principle across geographies: power generation must equal demand. Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia sit inside the PJM footprint, with proximity to data-center growth corridors and access to natural-gas infrastructure. Smartland will continue evaluating opportunities in the region as part of its active development pipeline. See current initiatives → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/explosive-power-demand-puts-grid-reliability-in-the-spotlight/ TITLE: Explosive Power Demand Puts Grid Reliability in the Spotlight | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Demand growth across data centers, AI, manufacturing, and electrification is putting reliability under unusual operational pressure. ============================================================================== # Explosive Power Demand Puts Grid Reliability in the Spotlight ← All Industry NewsJune 3, 2025 - vadim.k - Industry News As electrification accelerates across the U.S., grid reliability is entering a critical phase. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has issued a stark warning: surging electricity demand is outpacing infrastructure, posing heightened blackout risks across multiple regions. Driven by the rapid rise of data centers, electrified transportation, AI development, and reshoring of manufacturing, demand for electricity is projected to grow faster than previously anticipated. At the same time, traditional baseload resources (coal and aging nuclear facilities) are retiring or scaling back, leaving a narrower margin for error in meeting peak load conditions. NERC's latest Long-Term Reliability Assessment identifies key regions under stress, including parts of the Midwest, Southeast, and West. The report emphasizes that without substantial investment in dispatchable resources, transmission upgrades, and grid-flexible technologies, the nation's energy system could face serious reliability challenges over the next decade. ### What This Means for Buyers This shift creates a clear procurement signal for sophisticated power buyers - data centers, industrial campuses, defense installations: - Grid-only supply is no longer a defensible procurement strategy in the regions NERC has flagged. Buyers who lock in dedicated, behind-the-meter generation now retain operational predictability that grid-only competitors will not have. - Dispatchable, contractable supply at the POD is the procurement default. Modular generation, behind-the-meter contracting, and SLA-backed availability are no longer alternatives - they are the path of least regret. - Geography matters. Buyers evaluating siting decisions should weigh reliability constraints alongside fundamentals like fiber, water, and labor. At Smartland Energy, we see these shifts as the procurement signal driving the next decade of power infrastructure for the loads that cannot wait on the utility grid. The grid is evolving, and the buyers who structure their power procurement around the new reality (modular, dedicated, contractable at the POD) will not be the ones caught short by the next reliability event. See how we structure dedicated power → · Reserve capacity → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ferc-co-location-order-pjm-data-center-power-rules/ TITLE: FERC's Co-Location Order: New PJM Rules for Data Center Power | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: FERC has directed PJM to rewrite the rules for co-locating generation with data centers and for behind-the-meter generation. Here is what it means for getting power on time. ============================================================================== # FERC's Co-Location Order: What the New PJM Rules Mean for Data Center Power ← All Industry NewsJune 18, 2026 - Smartland Energy Research - Industry News For the better part of two years, the most important question in large-load power has been a logistical one: how do you energize hundreds of megawatts of new demand when the interconnection queue moves in years and the grid operator is short on capacity? In December 2025, the federal regulator started rewriting the rulebook around one of the fastest answers - putting generation right next to the load. For anyone planning a data center, AI campus, or large industrial site in the nation's biggest power market, the details matter. ### What FERC actually ordered On December 18, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued an order in a show-cause proceeding directing PJM Interconnection - the grid operator for 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states plus D.C. - to fix how it handles large loads that co-locate with generating facilities. FERC found PJM's existing tariff "unjust and unreasonable" because its rates, terms, and conditions for co-location arrangements lacked clarity and consistency, according to Utility Dive and legal analyses from Baker Botts. Critically for anyone weighing on-site generation, FERC also found PJM's behind-the-meter generation (BTMG) rules "no longer just and reasonable," because the tariff did not fully account for loads served by BTM generation in resource adequacy planning. In plain terms: the regulator concluded the old framework for co-located and behind-the-meter power was holding back projects and needed to be modernized. ### The new options on the table The order directs PJM to create clarity in three areas, per the FERC fact sheet: establish new transmission service options for co-located customers, clarify the interconnection procedures co-located projects must follow, and revise the BTMG rules, including a transition and grandfathering process for certain existing customers. PJM was directed to make compliance filings in early 2026 describing, among other things, how co-located customers can access provisional interconnection, request service below a generator's nameplate capacity, and move through an accelerated process. The throughline is optionality. Instead of forcing every large load into the same multi-year, full-interconnection path, the framework is moving toward defined, faster routes for projects that bring their own generation to the site. That is a structural acknowledgment of what developers have argued for two years: co-located and behind-the-meter power is not a workaround, it is a legitimate way to serve load the grid cannot reach in time. ### Why this matters for time-to-power The backdrop is a capacity crunch. PJM has warned it could face a capacity shortfall as new load outpaces new generation, and reporting from Utility Dive notes developers are ready to build but need firm contracts and clarity to do it. When the public grid is constrained, the value of a defined, contractable path to on-site power rises - and a clearer regulatory framework reduces the risk that a co-located project gets tangled in tariff ambiguity halfway through development. For a buyer, the practical takeaway is that the regulatory ground under behind-the-meter and co-located power is getting firmer, not shakier. That is the opposite of how on-site generation was sometimes characterized a year ago, when a high-profile co-location case was rejected over reliability concerns. The direction of travel now is toward defined rules that let these projects proceed. ### What a buyer should do with this Three things follow for anyone underwriting large new load on a fixed go-live date. First, evaluate co-located and BTM options on equal footing with a traditional interconnection - the timeline math increasingly favors on-site generation, and the rules are catching up. Second, ask how a developer structures the commercial package: the regulatory clarity FERC is forcing only helps if the offtake itself is built for diligence, with a defined Point of Delivery, clear performance terms, and remedies a lender can underwrite. (We covered that in what a behind-the-meter power SLA actually covers.) Third, move early: provisional and accelerated interconnection options reward projects that are already in motion, not those still deciding. This is the environment Smartland Energy develops for - dedicated behind-the-meter power for data centers, industry, and defense, structured so the commercial and reliability terms hold up to procurement and lender review. A clearer federal framework for co-location does not change what makes a project bankable; it removes one more reason a good project stalls. FERC's order is not the last word - PJM's compliance filings and stakeholder process will define the specifics, and other regions will watch how it plays out. But the signal is unambiguous: the largest grid operator in the country has been told to make room for the loads, and the on-site generation, that are defining this decade of power demand. For buyers who cannot wait on the queue, the comparison between grid interconnection and BTM just tilted a little further toward building your own. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/fragile-grids-rising-demand-why-hardening-is-no-longer-optional/ TITLE: Fragile Grids, Rising Demand: Why Hardening Is No Longer Optional | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Aging T&D, climate stress, and rising demand make grid hardening a near-term operational requirement, not a long-term policy goal. ============================================================================== # Fragile Grids, Rising Demand: Why Hardening Is No Longer Optional ← All Industry NewsAugust 22, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News The U.S. is facing a collision of trends: aging power infrastructure, surging demand, and escalating climate volatility. Taken together, they underscore why grid hardening and modernization can no longer be treated as optional upgrades - they are critical to keeping the lights on in an era defined by electrification and disruption. ### The Problem: Old Grids in a New World - Nearly 70% of U.S. transmission lines are over 25 years old, with some components dating back to the 1940s. - The U.S. experienced 27 separate billion-dollar weather disasters in 2024 alone, the second-worst year on record. - Global electricity demand is accelerating, driven by EV adoption, AI data centers, industrial reshoring, and climate-driven cooling needs. Grids designed as one-way delivery systems now face two-way power flows, rooftop solar inputs, and distributed generation. The design mismatch is growing harder to ignore. ### Resilience Means More Than Recovery Experts argue the conversation must move beyond outage response to structural resilience, built on three pillars: - Endurance: Harder assets that withstand heat, wind, flooding, and stress, including underground lines and weatherized substations. - Adaptability: Smart grid systems with sensors, automation, and AI-based controls to reconfigure in real time. - Recovery: Modular infrastructure, remote operations, and predictive maintenance to speed restoration and avoid cascading failures. ### The Scale of the Challenge Globally, meeting the electrification surge will require 50 billion miles of new or modernized grid infrastructure by 2040 - essentially rebuilding the entire grid system in just 15 years. The price tag is staggering, but so are the risks of inaction. ### What This Means for Buyers For sophisticated power buyers - data centers, industrial campuses, defense installations - the fragility of the grid translates directly into uptime risk, schedule risk, and contract risk. Outages, curtailments, and volatile capacity prices will continue to hit unprepared markets. The path of least regret is to reduce dependence on contested grid build-outs: - Behind-the-meter generation and storage to bypass fragile infrastructure and contract availability at the POD. - Microgrids and modular assets that offer localized reliability and island-mode capability. - Procurement-grade SLA terms that turn reliability from a marketing claim into an enforceable commitment. ### Smartland Energy's Take The energy transition isn't just about adding renewables - it's about reinforcing the backbone that carries them. As utilities race to modernize, Smartland Energy is focused on behind-the-meter strategies that bring resilience closer to the load. In a world of aging grids and rising volatility, localized power isn't just a hedge - it's a procurement necessity for any operator who cannot tolerate utility-side risk. The grids we inherited weren't built for this century. The buyers who structure their power procurement around that reality - modular, dedicated, contractable at the POD - will not be the ones who get caught short. Reserve capacity → · Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/generative-ais-energy-consumption-why-rising-demand-matters-for-power-and-infrastructure/ TITLE: Generative AI's Energy Consumption: Why Rising Demand Matters for Power and Infrastructure | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Generative AI workloads are concentrated, ramp-heavy, and 24/7 - exactly the load profile dedicated BTM generation is designed for. ============================================================================== # Generative AI's Energy Consumption: Why Rising Demand Matters for Power and Infrastructure ← All Industry NewsSeptember 26, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News As generative AI transforms industries, a less visible story is unfolding: its energy demand and energy consumption are climbing faster than expected, straining grids and reshaping infrastructure needs. Recent research by Hugging Face shows that AI video generation is structurally inefficient: a six-second video consumes four times more energythan a three-second clip. This nonlinear scaling underscores that today's AI tools are not just compute-intensive - they are power-intensive. For context, generating a single AI video clip can use the same electricity as running a household microwave for an hour. With billions of videos already being created, the environmental and grid impacts are profound. ## Why This Matters - Energy demand is compounding: AI already accounts for up to 20% of global data center power use, and the share is rising as training workloads and inference volumes grow. - Grid pressure is mounting: As utilities retire coal and struggle to add new gas capacity, the power required for AI workloads may accelerate grid congestion. - Corporate climate goals are slipping: Even Google, once a leader in net-zero targets, saw a 13% increase in carbon emissions year over year, driven in part by generative AI's electricity consumption. ## What Buyers Should Plan For - Infrastructure pathway: Behind-the-meter generation, layered storage, and CHP-ready design are becoming the path of least regret for AI buyers facing utility-side constraints. - Policy direction: Regulatory pressure is growing on tech firms whose AI adoption drives higher emissions and rising local rate impacts. Buyers who locked in dedicated generation early will have a structural advantage as policy tightens. - Procurement timing: The mismatch between AI adoption speed and grid build-out timelines (often 4–5 years) means dedicated power should be procured ahead of compute, not behind it. ## Smartland's Perspective At Smartland Energy, we track these developments closely because they point to a clear truth: AI is not just a software revolution - it's an energy revolution. Understanding the dynamics of generative AI energy demand isn't optional for the data-center, AI-infrastructure, and industrial buyers we serve. The companies that align dedicated power infrastructure with their digital growth roadmap will be the ones with the schedule certainty and cost predictability their boards and customers expect. See how we structure power for data center buyers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/grid-at-a-crossroads-why-the-u-s-energy-infrastructure-cant-afford-to-wait/ TITLE: Grid at a Crossroads: Why the U.S. Energy Infrastructure Can't Afford to Wait | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: The U.S. grid is at an inflection point - load growth, equipment supply, and aging infrastructure are converging on a tighter timeline. ============================================================================== # Grid at a Crossroads: Why the U.S. Energy Infrastructure Can't Afford to Wait ← All Industry NewsJune 12, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News A new report titled “Out of Sync: The Infrastructure Misalignment Undermining the U.S. Grid”warns of mounting risks to grid reliability as energy demand accelerates faster than the nation's infrastructure can keep up. From transformer bottlenecks to natural-gas storage constraints, the U.S. power system is under increasing strain with major implications for buyers, developers, and consumers alike. ### Demand Surging, Infrastructure Lagging Electricity demand is entering a new growth era, driven by AI-powered data centers, EV adoption, and industrial reshoring. Yet, transmission projects still take an average of 10 years to complete. In 2024, just 5,600 circuit-miles of new lines were added - most at lower voltages. Meanwhile, aging distribution equipment and chronic permitting delays are slowing down urgently-needed upgrades. ### AI and Data Centers Are Changing the Game Hyperscale data centers are expected to add 47 GW of demand by 2030, much of it sourced directly from utilities or on-site generation. These BTM loads are difficult to forecast, but their impact on local grids is immediate and substantial. ### Natural-Gas Dependency Creates Reliability Risk Gas-fired power remains essential for reliability, but U.S. gas infrastructure isn't keeping pace. Storage capacity is barely growing, even as cold-weather events increasingly expose the interdependence of gas and electric systems. Today, gas-storage withdrawals contribute 144x more power than all U.S. battery and hydro storage combined - underscoring the scale of the challenge. ### Call to Action: Modernize, Coordinate, Build This spike in electricity demand is arriving during a broader transformation of the U.S. energy grid. Utilities are under pressure to retire fossil-fuel capacity faster than dispatchable replacements can come online. The report emphasizes the need for: - Coordinated planning between electric and gas systems - Acceleration of transmission and pipeline development - Strategic workforce investment - Federal-state alignment on permitting and incentives ### What This Means for BTM Buyers For sophisticated power buyers - data centers, industrial campuses, defense installations - the structural mismatch between demand and infrastructure is the procurement signal that justifies dedicated behind-the-meter generation as the default path, not the alternative. The buyers who structure their power procurement around the reality of 10-year transmission timelines and constrained gas storage will not be the ones caught short by the next reliability event. See how we structure dedicated power → · Reserve capacity → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/grid-interconnection-vs-btm/ TITLE: Grid Interconnection vs. Behind-the-Meter Power: A Timeline Comparison | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Utility interconnection queues are widely reported at five or more years for large loads. Decentralized behind-the-meter (BTM) generation built at the load targets ~24 months from Notice to Proceed. Side-by-side comparison. ============================================================================== # Grid Interconnection vs. Behind-the-Meter Power Two paths to energizing a large load, compared on the one thing that decides most projects: time. ## The Decision Every Large Load Faces If you need 100 MW or more by 2028, you have two realistic paths: wait for a utility interconnection, or build dedicated, decentralized generation at the load, independent of the queue. Which one is right depends on your timeline, your market, and how much schedule risk you can carry. Make that call on real numbers, not optimism. This page lays out both paths the way a procurement or diligence team would: step by step, with the schedule drivers named. 5+ yrs Widely reported interconnection waits for large loads in major U.S. markets ~24 mo Smartland target from Notice to Proceed to power online ## The Two Paths, Step by Step ### Path 1: Utility Interconnection Schedule controlled by the utility and the regional queue. 1Application and queue position Load study request, deposits, and a place in line behind every project ahead of you. 2Studies and system upgrades Feasibility, system impact, and facilities studies - then transmission or substation upgrades if the grid can't serve the load as-is. This is where years are added. 3Energization - on the utility's schedule Timing depends on upgrade construction and queue movement. Waits of five or more years for large loads are widely reported across major markets. ### Path 2: Dedicated BTM Power Schedule controlled by the project, tied to Notice to Proceed. 1Capacity reservation Define load, density roadmap, and timeline; reserve capacity at a defined Point of Delivery under contract. 2Notice to Proceed From NTP, schedule is driven by permitting, equipment lead times, and site-specific scope - factors a developer manages, not a queue. 3Power online in ~24 months Modular 10 MW RICE generation commissioned in blocks, delivered through an N+2 architecture with A/B feeds at the POD, governed by a contract-backed SLA. See the platform → ## When Grid Power Is Still the Right Call Dedicated generation is not the answer to every load. If your timeline is flexible, your market's queue is short, or your load is small enough to be served from existing capacity, a standard interconnection may cost less and carry less complexity. Where dedicated behind-the-meter (BTM) capacity wins is when the calendar is the constraint: compute roadmaps measured in quarters, contractual go-live dates, or resilience requirements the grid cannot guarantee. Many operators run both paths in parallel - BTM capacity energizes the first stages while the interconnection matures. ## What This Means for 2028 Planning A load that needs power in 2028 and enters a multi-year queue today carries schedule risk no contract can hedge. Smartland Energy's initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. That capacity is finite and reserved in advance, under contract, at a defined Point of Delivery. How to secure 100-400 MW by 2028 → Download the brief: The 24-Month Path to Power (PDF) → ## Common Questions ### How long do interconnection queues actually run? It varies by utility and region, but multi-year waits are standard for loads above 100 MW, and waits of five or more years are widely reported in major markets. ### Is BTM reliable enough for compute? The platform is designed around N+2 redundancy, A/B delivery at the POD, and a contract-backed SLA with defined outage classifications - terms written for procurement and lender review. ### Can I do both? Yes. Dedicated BTM capacity can energize early stages on a known schedule while a utility interconnection matures in parallel. The paths are complementary. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/industrial/ TITLE: For Industrial: Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Dedicated 100-300 MW for robotics factories, advanced manufacturing, and uptime-sensitive operations. Modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines, with CHP available where beneficial. ============================================================================== # Dedicated BTM Power For Large Industrial Loads Dedicated 100 to 300 MW on-site for robotics and automation factories, advanced manufacturing, and other uptime-sensitive operations. RICE for ramp behavior and rolling maintenance, CCGT for steady baseload. CHP available where beneficial. Outages, curtailments, and rate volatility translate into real downtime risk for manufacturers. Grid upgrades can take years; dedicated on-site generation targets power online approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed, so production keeps running and maintenance is planned around your schedule. Request Capacity Availability(877) 313-5777 Don't fill this out: NameCompany EmailPhone How can we help?Send Message Electricity demand is rising sharply in constrained regions, driven in part by AI-related data center growth, and some jurisdictions are seeing local rate increases tied to new large loads. At the same time, outages and unpredictable restoration create real downtime risk for manufacturers and heavy industry. Decentralized generation built at the load (dedicated, behind-the-meter, and independent of centralized grid expansion) lets critical loads ride through grid disturbances, curtailments, and congestion events. Maintenance is planned around your schedule. We size every project to your actual load shape using modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp and rolling maintenance, or combined-cycle gas turbines for steady high-efficiency baseload. CHP integration is available where beneficial, and it matters most for industrial campuses with stable thermal demand. Target delivery Power online approximately 24 months after Notice to Proceed, subject to permitting, interconnect scope, and final engineering. Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028. Core operating principle On-site generation, battery energy storage, and intelligent control systems work together to continuously balance customer demand while delivering very high reliability, power quality, and operational flexibility. ## Proof Stack ### Built for industrial uptime Modular 10 MW RICE redundancy or a CCGT-based design, a defined Point of Delivery, and contractual performance terms aligned to real operating risk. ### CHP available where beneficial For industrial loads with stable thermal demand (process steam, hot water, drying, sterilization, district heating), CHP is a direct path to lower total energy cost over the contract life. ### Cost and rate insulation On-site supply can reduce exposure to congestion-driven volatility and local rate impacts tied to new large loads. Revenue-grade metering at the POD and defined settlement rules make every invoice auditable. ### Proof, Not Promises Leadership team with experience commissioning 10+ GW across large-scale power assets. See past experience → ## Who Is This For This is a fit when downtime is expensive, utility timelines are too slow, or rate and congestion volatility is becoming operationally material. - Manufacturing lines where even brief interruptions create lost production, scrap, equipment stress, safety exposure, and missed delivery commitments - Plants facing unpredictable restoration times after grid events and limited utility control over local uptime - Sites expanding electrified process loads, new lines, or campus-scale capacity in constrained regions - Operators seeking a clear boundary at the POD with accountable performance terms and transparent settlement - Facilities with stable thermal demand where optional CHP reduces total energy cost over the contract life - Operators that want maintenance planned around production, not utility schedules ### If grid constraints are threatening your production timeline, Request Capacity Availability. We will confirm fit and outline the fastest path to terms. Initial capacity is targeted for Q3 2028. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## What You Get 1 ### Dedicated supply built to your operating profile Capacity is sized to your load shape, ramp behavior, and critical-load requirements. Modular 10 MW RICE units deliver native N+2 and support rolling maintenance for plants where production cannot pause for plant-wide outages. Combined-cycle gas turbines are used where steady high-efficiency baseload is the better fit. Delivery is defined at a POD with metering, performance definitions, and clear responsibilities. 2 ### CHP available where beneficial Where your thermal-load profile supports it, combined heat and power is scoped into the project during development. For industrial campuses with stable thermal demand, CHP is a real economic lever: captured waste heat reduces process fuel cost, lowers total carbon intensity, and improves the marginal economics of the offtake. 3 ### Commercial predictability We structure terms to match industrial procurement preferences: fixed energy, indexed fuel pass-through with caps or collars, capacity reservation plus energy, and tolling-style structures where you want dispatch influence. 4 ### Integration-first engineering We align early on voltage, protection, fault duty, and interface requirements so the project integrates cleanly with your facility distribution and critical systems. 5 ### Execution discipline Permitting gates, interconnect scope, and procurement lead times are addressed early. Milestones and schedule drivers are made visible so you can plan expansion around them. Note: Availability guarantees, planned maintenance windows, exclusions, and remedies are defined in the offtake agreement to match your risk profile and facility architecture. Request Capacity AvailabilityBook a 15-Min Call ## Process + Timeline Step 1 ### Share MW need, site constraints, target go-live, and thermal-load profile (for CHP economics). We confirm fit and the critical schedule drivers. Step 2 ### Align on POD boundary, electrical approach, architecture (modular RICE vs. CCGT), and load profile requirements. Step 3 ### Confirm permitting path and interconnect scope assumptions that affect schedule and cost. Step 4 ### Issue term sheet and capacity reservation with defined milestones and credit expectations. Step 5 ### Finalize engineering, long-lead procurement, and commissioning plan tied to performance testing. Step 6 ### Build, commission, and operate to the contracted SLA with defined reporting and maintenance planning. ## Common Questions (Industrial) ### Strategy, Schedule, & Architecture #### Utility timeline risk Grid upgrades can take years. Dedicated on-site delivery reduces dependency on long transmission and substation upgrade cycles. Schedule is driven by permitting, interconnect scope, and equipment lead times surfaced early. #### What about outage and restoration exposure? Utilities prioritize system-wide restoration. Our approach is to put dedicated generation on-site and define responsibilities and restoration procedures at the POD. #### How we handle production downtime cost We structure performance around what even brief interruptions can cost: scrap, rework, safety events, equipment stress, and missed deliveries. #### On rate and congestion volatility AI-driven data center growth is increasing demand sharply in parts of the grid. Some jurisdictions have seen local rate increases connected to new loads. Dedicated on-site supply can reduce exposure to those dynamics. #### The question of modular RICE versus CCGT We propose architecture against your actual load shape rather than forcing one technology onto every site. Modular 10 MW RICE units fit ramp-heavy duty cycles and plants where rolling maintenance matters. Combined-cycle gas turbines fit steady, high-efficiency baseload. Both can integrate CHP where beneficial. #### On ramping and load swing needs We align generation blocks and operating protocols to your ramp behavior and duty cycle, including start, step load, and steady-state expectations. Modular RICE topology is particularly suited to swinging loads because individual engines start, sync, and unload faster than large frame turbines. ### Operations & Reliability #### What about unclear boundaries? The POD is the contractual and technical demarcation. Metering, protection responsibilities, and operating protocols are defined there. #### How we handle power quality concerns We engineer the interface for industrial loads with appropriate MV design, protection coordination, and operating procedures aligned to equipment sensitivity. #### What about planned maintenance conflict? Planned maintenance windows, notice periods, and outage classifications are agreed up front and aligned to your production schedule. Modular RICE topology supports rolling maintenance. Individual engines can be serviced without taking the site offline. #### How we handle curtailment and availability ambiguity Curtailment rights, deemed energy or deemed capacity where applicable, and settlement rules are defined contractually. #### How we handle CHP CHP is available where beneficial, not by default. We evaluate your thermal utilization economics during development; where the numbers support it, combined heat and power is scoped into the project with the permitting path identified up front. #### On thermal integration risk Steam and hot water interfaces are engineered to your required conditions, including duty cycle assumptions and safety protocols. #### How we handle black start and restoration ambiguity Restoration procedures are defined, and black start capability can be included to support controlled restart after major events. #### On operational readiness risk Commissioning is executed against a defined test plan with operator training, procedures, and readiness checklists before commercial operation. #### Long-lead parts delays A critical spares strategy and service response expectations reduce downtime exposure from long lead replacements. Modular RICE engines are smaller, more interchangeable, and faster to replace than large frame turbines. #### What about interface safety concerns? Safety procedures, access controls, and emergency response coordination are defined at the facility interface. #### On OT security requirements Optional cyber-isolated control architectures with segmentation and hardened interfaces can be tailored to customer requirements. #### Site utility planning Site utility requirements are identified early and incorporated into the execution plan so they do not become hidden schedule drivers. ### Commercial, Permitting, & Diligence #### Billing disputes Revenue-grade metering at the POD and transparent settlement rules reduce invoice friction. #### On fuel price risk Pricing can be fixed, indexed, capped, or hedged depending on how you want to allocate fuel and basis risk. #### Credit and contract friction Credit support is defined and proportional to exposure, using structures familiar to industrial procurement teams. #### What about expansion uncertainty? Capacity is delivered in modular 10 MW increments so you can match commitments to real expansion timing and avoid overbuying early. Modular RICE makes this especially clean: additional 10 MW units are added as new lines come online. #### Environmental compliance planning gaps Permitting scope, monitoring, and reporting are planned early. Compliance responsibilities are defined to avoid late-stage surprises. #### What about community and stakeholder risk? Noise, traffic, and site impact planning are part of early development so stakeholder issues do not become late-stage blockers. Modern enclosed RICE plants run quieter than equivalent open-frame turbine plants, which materially reduces community-acceptance friction. #### How we handle data and reporting needs Operating logs, metering data, and SLA reporting support audits, invoice reconciliation, and internal governance. #### What about diligence friction? We provide a clear POD boundary definition, metering approach, integration assumptions, fuel and pricing framework, permitting path, and milestone plan suitable for procurement and investment committees. ## Closing Summary Smartland Energy develops dedicated on-site power for large industrial operations that need predictable cost and higher reliability when grid timelines and restoration performance cannot support production risk. Our core offering is sized in modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp, native N+2, and rolling maintenance, with combined-cycle gas turbine architectures available where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the operating profile. CHP is available where beneficial, with optional cyber-isolated controls tailored to facility requirements. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/insights/ TITLE: Power Infrastructure Insights - Grid and BTM Analysis | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Analysis of U.S. power infrastructure for buyer diligence: interconnection queues averaging 53 months, transformer supply, and federal energy credits. ============================================================================== # Insights Analysis of the forces reshaping U.S. power infrastructure, written for the buyer's diligence process as much as our own. Interconnection queues in the major ISOs now exceed four years. AI-driven demand is growing faster than the grid is being built out. Add transformer supply constraints, workforce shortages, shifting federal policy on data-center cost allocation, and the financial architecture of the IRA, and you have the forces behind every offtake conversation we have. The pages below are how we track and explain them. They serve the buyer's internal review committee as well as ours. ## Two Collections ### Industry News Analysis and commentary on the trends reshaping U.S. power markets, grid reliability, and dedicated behind-the-meter (BTM) power infrastructure. Recent coverage includes: - Behind-the-Meter Gas: Lead Times Now Decide Who Powers Up First - Texas Freezes Data Center Permits: Time-to-Power Is Now Political - FERC's Co-Location Order: What the New PJM Rules Mean for Data Center Power - Bring Your Own Power: Washington Signals a New Rule for AI Data Centers - Speed-to-Power: Data Center Interconnection Alternatives - utility queues now average 53 months nationally; PJM and CAISO exceed 58 - Eric Schmidt Warns: America May Need 92 GW More Power for AI - Transformer Supply in 2026: A Constraint That's Reshaping Grid Development - The Power Industry's Hidden Constraint: Why Workforce Shortages Are Becoming a Grid Risk - Quiet, Efficient Power: A 214 MW RICE Plant Designed for Communities - Fragile Grids, Rising Demand: Why Hardening Is No Longer Optional View Industry News → ### Energy Credits Buyer's guide to the federal credits that affect the levelized cost and contractual structure of a behind-the-meter offtake: 48E, 45Y, 45Q, 45U, 45X, transferability under Section 6418, and direct pay under Section 6417. It also covers the bonus credit framework and state-level programs in our active development geographies. View Energy Credits → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/investors/ TITLE: Capital Partners | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Briefings for accredited investors on Smartland Energy's late-stage, pre-NTP power infrastructure development opportunities. ============================================================================== # Capital Partners Briefings for accredited investors on Smartland Energy's late-stage, pre-NTP power infrastructure development opportunities. # Capital Partners Smartland Energy is a power infrastructure developer building dedicated behind-the-meter generation for hyperscale data centers, AI operations, large industrial campuses, defense installations, and the critical defense industrial base. We are backed by a proven private equity platform and partner with accredited investors on late-stage, pre-NTP development opportunities - typically GP / LP structures with deal-level visibility into capital structure, projected returns, and path to deployment. This page contains materials intended for accredited investors as defined under SEC Rule 506(c) of Regulation D. To proceed, please confirm your status: I am an accredited investor - ContinueNot an accredited investor - Return to home ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/microgrids-are-no-longer-niche-theyre-the-backbone-of-resilient-decentralized-energy/ TITLE: Microgrids Are No Longer Niche - They're the Backbone of Resilient Decentralized Energy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Microgrid deployments are accelerating across mission, industrial, and campus sites where utility reliability cannot be assumed. ============================================================================== # Microgrids Are No Longer Niche, They're the Backbone of Resilient, Decentralized Energy ← All Industry NewsJune 26, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News ### Industry Insight Long used for backup power in remote areas, microgrids are now anchoring the energy strategies of military bases, data centers, tribal nations, logistics hubs, and utility-challenged regions across the U.S. Their appeal: resilience, flexibility, cost control, and grid independence - right as centralized systems face surging demand and instability. “Microgrids are not just a technological innovation - they are a strategic move toward energy independence, climate resilience, and people empowerment.” - Brandon Young, CEO, Payless Power ## Market Momentum According to Precedence Research, the global microgrid market is projected to surpass $60 billion by 2032, growing at 22% CAGR - a trend fueled by AI compute, renewable intermittency, and grid congestion. States are responding. West Virginia's recent Power Generation and Consumption Act now fast-tracks permitting for microgrids powered by solar, hydrogen, natural gas, and even coal - making it one of the most microgrid-friendly regulatory environments in the country. ## What's Driving the Shift - Critical Infrastructure First: The Department of Defense, Fidelis New Energy (hyperscale data centers), and Crowley Logistics are already building microgrids to secure operations and meet uptime standards. (See how Smartland Energy structures dedicated power for data centers and defense installations on the same principles.) - Energy Cost Control: Organizations are turning to gas, solar, and storage microgrids to reduce utility exposure, load-shift during peak pricing, and stabilize total energy cost. - Community Resilience: From tribal nations in California to churches in Georgia, microgrids are supporting public safety, medical access, EV charging, and emergency shelter. “Nearly every building benefits from a battery.” - Alex Ince-Cushman, CEO, Branch Energy ## Smartland Energy's Perspective As behind-the-meter power needs escalate - particularly across AI-linked infrastructure and grid-stressed regions - Smartland Energy is actively evaluating project sites in zones like Tazewell County, VA, where regulatory flexibility and resource access align. We believe the future of power is modular, resilient, and locally governed. Microgrids - and at the buyer-relevant scale, dedicated behind-the-meter generation structured as a microgrid - are the scalable infrastructure capable of bridging today's reliability gap and tomorrow's demand surge. See current initiatives → Smartland Energy monitors infrastructure trends, regulatory signals, and energy system evolution across the U.S. for the data-center, industrial, and defense buyers who can no longer afford to depend on shared grid infrastructure. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/muskingum-river-plant-potential-redevelopment/ TITLE: Smartland Energy on Muskingum River Plant Potential Redevelopment | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Smartland submitted a redevelopment bid for the Muskingum River Plant; the Port Authority selected an alternate proposal. We continue to engage on adjacent Ohio sites. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy on Muskingum River Plant Potential Redevelopment ← All NewsroomAugust 2025 - Newsroom Smartland Energy submitted a redevelopment bid for the Muskingum River Plant site in Washington County, Ohio. The project evaluation and proposal were part of Smartland's ongoing initiative to repurpose strategic legacy energy infrastructure for modern, behind-the-meter use. After a thorough review process, the South East Ohio Port Authority - the site's owner - selected an alternate proposal based primarily on its potential to deliver a significantly larger number of permanent jobs to the region. Smartland Energy continues to explore redevelopment opportunities across the Midwest that support long-term energy resilience and economic growth. The Muskingum bid was one of multiple Ohio site evaluations active in our pipeline; we continue to engage on adjacent sites in the PJM footprint where existing transmission interconnection, water access, and brownfield permitting precedent align with the dedicated-megawatt requirements of large industrial and data-center buyers. See current initiatives → · Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/ohio-data-center-power/ TITLE: Dedicated Power for Data Centers and Industry in Ohio | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Eastern Ohio combines gas pipeline access, industrial-zoned land, and energy-community eligibility. Smartland Energy is actively evaluating sites for dedicated behind-the-meter capacity. ============================================================================== # Dedicated Power in Ohio One of the most active behind-the-meter development markets in the country - and the center of Smartland's site pipeline. ## Why Eastern Ohio Eastern Ohio has three things a procurement team weighs: gas pipeline accessfrom one of North America's most productive supply regions, industrial-zoned land suitable for generation and large-load campuses, and energy-community bonus eligibility that can improve project economics. Ohio has become one of the country's most active markets for dedicated, decentralized behind-the-meter (BTM) generation serving data centers - capacity built at the load, independent of centralized grid buildout. That also means competition for sites and capacity is accelerating. Gas + Land Pipeline access and industrial-zoned acreage in the same corridors PJM Inside the nation's largest wholesale market footprint ## Smartland's Ohio Activity ### Eastern Ohio Site Evaluations Active evaluation of sites screened for gas access, acreage, zoning, and interconnect scope. Read the update → ### Muskingum River Redevelopment A former power plant site under evaluation for potential redevelopment as dedicated generation. View the initiative → ### Capacity for 2028 Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028, reserved in sequence at a defined Point of Delivery. How reservation works → ## Built for Large Loads The platform delivers dedicated BTM capacity for 100-300 MW air-cooled data center deployments, and up to 400 MW for liquid-cooled, high-density AI infrastructure. Power online is targeted at ~24 months from NTP. The architecture is N+2: modular 10 MW RICE generation, A/B power at the POD, and a contract-backed SLA suitable for procurement, lender, and investor diligence. See the full platform specification → ## Also Evaluating Ohio anchors the pipeline, but it doesn't end there: Southwest Virginia sits inside the same PJM footprint with proximity to data-center growth corridors, and sites in Minnesota are under review as part of the active development pipeline. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/partners/ TITLE: Equipment Manufacturer & Supplier Partnerships | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Sell to a repeat, predictable buyer of engines, turbines, and balance-of-plant equipment: PE-backed, standardized 10 MW RICE blocks, multi-state pipeline. ============================================================================== # Build the Pipeline With Us Smartland Energy is a repeat, predictable buyer of generation equipment and balance-of-plant systems for decentralized power produced at the customer's load, backed by an established platform and a standardized modular 10 MW design. ## Why Partner With Smartland Equipment manufacturers and suppliers want the same thing in a developer that lenders do: predictability. Smartland is built to be a repeat counterparty rather than a one-project unknown, with standardized designs, an active multi-state pipeline, and the capital discipline to close. We integrate capital, generation technology, gas supply, permitting, land, and regulatory strategy under one roof, which means procurement decisions move on a schedule a supplier can plan against. 10+ GW Built and commissioned by our leadership globally 10 MW Standardized modular RICE block for repeatable orders Multi-state Active development pipeline across Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota PE-backed Backed by Smartland, an established platform ## What We Bring to a Supplier Relationship ### Repeatable Demand Standardized modular 10 MW RICE designs mean orders that repeat across projects, not bespoke one-offs that reset every time. ### Bankable Counterparty PE backing from Smartland and SLA-backed offtake contracts mean projects that reach financial close, the orders that actually convert. ### Experienced Operator Our team has commissioned 10+ GW worldwide, including the 2x725 MW GNPower Dinginin plant. We specify, install, and operate equipment to standards suppliers can rely on. ## Who We Work With We are an active buyer and integration partner for reciprocating-engine and gas-turbine manufacturers, switchgear and medium-voltage distribution suppliers, controls and UPS providers, battery energy storage vendors, and balance-of-plant contractors. We also pursue forward-looking generation partnerships. Smartland was an early investor in Hadron Energy, developer of the Halo Micro-Modular Reactor, and is evaluating candidate locations for up to five future projects. If you supply generation or balance-of-plant equipment and want to be on the short list for our pipeline (initial capacity is targeted for Q3 2028), start a conversation with our development team. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/pjm-grid-maxed-out-what-ai-growth-means-for-power-markets-and-investors/ TITLE: PJM Grid Maxed Out: What AI Growth Means for Power Buyers and Operators | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: PJM is the most pressured ISO in the country. The forward curve and queue length both signal a structural BTM opportunity. ============================================================================== # PJM Grid Maxed Out: What AI Growth Means for Power Buyers and Operators ← All Industry NewsJuly 23, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News America's largest power grid is running out of room. For sophisticated power buyers underwriting new compute, industrial, or defense load in the Mid-Atlantic, that should be the procurement signal driving the next 24 months of decisions. A new warning from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) highlights a growing mismatch in PJM Interconnection - covering 65 million people across 13 states - as power demand surges faster than new supply can come online. Capacity prices for the 2025–26 cycle spiked 800% year-over-year, and that may just be the beginning. ## Why It's Happening The driver: AI data centers, electrification mandates, and industrial reshoring. PJM expects peak load to rise from 152 GW to 184 GW by 2033, just as over 115 GW of fossil capacity retires. Meanwhile, siting and permitting bottlenecks are slowing the response. This is no longer theoretical. Virginia, Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania are already seeing constraints, with transmission congestion and limited spare capacity becoming real risks. Infrastructure, not algorithms, is the limiting factor in AI scalability. What was once an energy-supply issue is now shaping operational timelines, siting decisions, and competitive position for the operators planning to deploy. ### What Buyers Should Plan For - Capacity is becoming a constrained resource, not a commodity. PJM's recent price spike reflects the market signal: new, reliable supply is urgently needed. Buyers who lock in dedicated supply early will have a structural advantage. - Grid-access assumptions need stress-testing. Operators in data centers, logistics, and electrification-linked development should pressure-test their grid-access assumptions before committing capital - utility-side promises that worked 24 months ago may not survive contemporary procurement diligence. - Distributed solutions are now baseline, not niche. Microgrids, behind-the-meter generation, storage, and demand-side flexibility are no longer alternatives - they are the procurement path that delivers on time. States like West Virginia and Ohio are already rewriting permitting laws to prioritize projects that offer grid relief. This reshuffling of regulatory priorities favors buyers who pair siting flexibility with developers who can deliver dedicated power on real-world timelines. ### Smartland Energy's Perspective Smartland Energy is actively tracking where digital demand is clashing with physical constraints - and where dedicated, behind-the-meter power can get ahead of it. We're particularly focused on Appalachia and the Mid-Atlantic, where grid headroom is limited but land access and permitting pathways are opening up. See current initiatives → · Request capacity availability → The bottom line: AI isn't just straining the grid - it's reshaping how and where dedicated power gets built. Capacity is becoming a premium contracted asset, and the buyers best positioned for this new reality will be the ones who understand and plan for the procurement path. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/power-plants-can-be-quiet-neighbors-a-case-study-in-noise-reduction/ TITLE: Power Plants Can Be Quiet Neighbors: A Case Study in Noise Reduction | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Modern enclosed RICE plants run materially quieter than equivalent open-frame turbine plants - a real factor in community acceptance and permitting. ============================================================================== # Power Plants Can Be Quiet Neighbors: A Case Study in Noise Reduction ← All Industry NewsSeptember 12, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News When new energy projects are proposed, one of the first community concerns is noise. Residents imagine engines roaring day and night, disrupting daily life. But modern design shows that power plants can deliver reliable power while remaining virtually silent to surrounding neighborhoods. ### A Real-World Example: Growing Community, Quiet Power A recent case study, “Growing Community Seeks Attractive Power Plant – Noise Reduction Example,” illustrates how thoughtful design allows large-scale facilities to operate near residential areas without adverse effects. Independent acoustic modeling showed that even at full operation, sound levels at the property boundary measured just above the quiet hum of an office (approximately 55 dBA). Beyond the site, noise fell to the level of a quiet neighborhood or farm field (40–45 dBA). For comparison, a passing diesel truck reaches roughly 80 dBA, and a jet flyover can exceed 100 dBA. ### How It Works The project's design relied on proven noise-reduction strategies: - Acoustically treated enclosures around engines - Advanced silencers on exhaust stacks - Variable-speed, low-noise cooling fans - Site layouts that use natural buffers and distance from nearby homes These measures reduced sound to levels that blend into everyday background noise. ### Why It Matters for Buyers and Communities For communities, this means peace of mind: reliable energy infrastructure can be developed without compromising neighborhood quality of life. For buyers and developers, it proves that community compatibility is possible - and that earning permitting approval on real-world timelines is achievable when noise is addressed at the design stage. ### Looking Ahead As Smartland Energy evaluates project sites, we recognize that earning community trust is just as important as delivering megawatts. Modern enclosed RICE topology, in particular, is materially quieter than equivalent open-frame turbine designs - a real factor in community acceptance, permitting timelines, and siting flexibility. See how we approach gas architectures → · See current initiatives → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/power-surge-ahead-how-demand-data-and-decarbonization-are-reshaping-u-s-utilities/ TITLE: Power Surge Ahead: How Demand, Data, and Decarbonization Are Reshaping U.S. Utilities | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Three forces (demand growth, data-center expansion, and decarbonization) are reshaping how utilities build and how buyers procure power. ============================================================================== # Power Surge Ahead: How Demand, Data, and Decarbonization Are Reshaping U.S. Utilities ← All Industry NewsJune 3, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News The U.S. electricity sector is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation, fueled by explosive demand growth from data centers, electric vehicles, domestic manufacturing, and smart electrification. According to Deloitte's 2025 Power & Utilities Industry Outlook, this demand surge marks a sustained departure from two decades of flat consumption - and it's forcing utilities to rethink everything from infrastructure investment to workforce strategy. Electricity consumption rose 1.8% in 2024, but that's just the beginning. Data centers alone could consume up to 15% of total U.S. electricity by 2030, driven by generative AI, machine learning, and cryptocurrency operations. EVs and heat pumps are also adding steady load growth across homes and buildings, while over 150 new onshore manufacturing facilities are pushing industrial demand skyward. To keep up, utilities are projected to spend a record $174 billion on capital upgrades in 2024, primarily on grid infrastructure. But they're also contending with massive challenges: transformer supply shortages, climate-related infrastructure damage, rate-approval lags, and a widening talent gap. ### Energy Trends to Watch - Nuclear Resurgence: Utilities are extending the life of existing plants, restarting retired reactors, and exploring modular nuclear options, supported by improved federal incentives and growing customer demand for firm low-carbon supply. - Distributed Energy Resources (DERs): From battery storage and microgrids to virtual power plants, DERs are gaining momentum as tools to strengthen the grid and enhance resilience. - Carbon Management: Utilities are piloting carbon capture, offsets, and even biomass-to-energy conversions to tackle “last mile” emissions. - Workforce 2.0: Record hiring, AI-driven training, and public-private partnerships are redefining utility labor strategies for a decarbonized, digital grid. ### What This Means for Buyers This is a defining moment for sophisticated power buyers. The headline shift - utility-side build-out at record pace, but still trailing demand - has direct procurement implications: - Utility-only paths to power are increasingly insufficient. When utilities are spending record capital and still struggling to keep up, the buyers who depend exclusively on grid-side capacity inherit that struggle. - Behind-the-meter generation is the path of least regret. For data-center, industrial, and defense buyers, dedicated power that can be contracted at the POD with procurement-grade SLA terms is no longer the alternative - it's the procurement default. (See Solutions Overview.) - Forward-looking firm-power technologies are worth tracking, but not waiting for. Advanced nuclear (including Smartland's Hadron MMR partnership), CCS, and hydrogen blending matter for the next decade - but procurement decisions in the next 24 months should be structured around gas-led behind-the-meter with future-add optionality. As Smartland Energy tracks these trends, we remain committed to delivering scalable behind-the-meter power for the buyers who can no longer afford to depend on shared grid infrastructure. Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/privacy-policy/ TITLE: Privacy Policy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: How Smartland Energy collects, uses, and protects personal information. ============================================================================== # Privacy Policy Effective Date: 2026-05-04 Last Updated: 2026-09-29 ## 1. Introduction This Privacy Policy describes how Smartland Energy and its affiliates (“Smartland Energy,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collect, use, disclose, and protect personal information in connection with smartlandenergy.com (the “Site”), our communications, and our services. The legal entity responsible is Smartland Energy, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company, with headquarters at 35350 Curtis Boulevard, Eastlake, Ohio 44095. We operate two related but distinct interactions through the Site: - Buyer-facing inquiries - prospective customers exploring dedicated behind-the-meter power for data centers, industrial campuses, and defense installations. Examples include the Capacity Availability form and the general Contact form. - Capital partner inquiries- accredited investors evaluating opportunities to participate in Smartland's late-stage, pre-NTP power infrastructure development (the “/investors/” subpath). Some provisions of this Policy apply to both. Other provisions - particularly those addressing accredited-investor verification and securities-related communications - apply specifically to capital-partner inquiries and are called out below. By using the Site or providing information to us, you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. ## 2. Information We Collect ### 2.1 Information You Provide Directly We collect information you provide when you: - Submit a Capacity Availability request: name, company name, work email, phone, target capacity (MW), go-live window, buyer type, and biggest constraint. - Submit a Contact form: name, business email, phone (optional), subject, and message. - Schedule a Book-a-Call session: name, business email, phone, organization, and call topic. - Inquire as an accredited investor through /investors/: name, email, phone, organization, accredited-investor self-attestation, and information collected during accredited-investor verification (which may include financial documentation, government identification, or third-party-service verification records - see Section 6). - Communicate with us by email, phone, or in writing: any information you choose to share. - Subscribe to communications or newsletters: name and email. ### 2.2 Information Collected Automatically When you access the Site, we automatically collect technical data, including: - Device and connection data: IP address, device type, browser type and version, operating system, language preference, time zone, referring URL. - Usage data: pages visited, time spent, click-stream behavior, search terms entered on the Site, files downloaded, dates and times of access. - Cookies and similar technologies: see Section 5. ### 2.3 Information from Third Parties We may receive information about you from: - Service providers (e.g., the email and CRM platforms that route Site form submissions to our team). - Accredited-investor verification services (if engaged for Reg D 506(c) verification). - Public sources (e.g., LinkedIn, regulatory filings) for the limited purpose of confirming organizational role or accredited-investor representation. - Referral sources identifying you to us. ### 2.4 Sensitive Personal Information In the course of accredited-investor verification, we may collect information that constitutes “Sensitive Personal Information” under California law (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.140) or analogous categories under other state laws. Such information may include financial account information, government-issued identification, and other documentation supporting accredited-investor status. We use this information only for the purposes described in Section 3.6 and as required by federal securities laws. ### 2.5 Information We Do Not Collect We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age. The Site is directed to commercial buyers, defense customers, and accredited investors and is not intended for children. If we learn we have collected personal information from a person under 18, we will delete it promptly. See also Section 9. ## 3. How We Use Your Information We use the information we collect for the following purposes: ### 3.1 Service Delivery and Buyer Inquiry Routing - Respond to inquiries about dedicated behind-the-meter power - Confirm fit, schedule scoping calls, and propose terms - Provide capacity availability assessments ### 3.2 Capital Partner Communications - Respond to inquiries from prospective accredited investors - Conduct or coordinate accredited-investor verification under SEC Rule 506(c) - Provide deal-level information following execution of any required non-disclosure agreement - Process subscription documents if and when an investment decision is made ### 3.3 Site Operation and Improvement - Operate, secure, monitor, and improve the Site and our communications - Conduct analytics and aggregated reporting - Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents ### 3.4 Marketing and Communications - Send updates, newsletters, and event invitations to individuals who have requested them or whose business relationship with us reasonably contemplates them - We honor opt-out and unsubscribe requests within the timeframes required by applicable law ### 3.5 Legal and Compliance - Comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, subpoenas, and lawful government requests - Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims - Enforce our agreements ### 3.6 Securities Law Compliance - Verify accredited-investor status as required under SEC Rule 506(c) - Maintain records as required by federal and state securities laws - Provide information to securities regulators on lawful request ### 3.7 Lawful Bases (where GDPR applies) Where the General Data Protection Regulation applies, we rely on the following lawful bases: Contract (responding to inquiries that may lead to a business relationship); Legitimate interests (operating, securing, and improving the Site; conducting due diligence on counterparties; direct marketing where appropriate); Consent (where required, including for certain cookies and marketing communications); and Legal obligation (compliance with applicable laws including securities laws). ## 4. Sharing of Information We share personal information only with the following categories of recipients: ### 4.1 Service Providers We share information with vendors and service providers acting on our behalf under written contracts that limit their use of the information to the services we have engaged them to provide. These include: - Hosting and infrastructure providers (e.g., website hosting, email services) - Analytics providers (e.g., Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics) - CRM and email marketing providers - Form processing and security services (including reCAPTCHA) - Accredited-investor verification services (where engaged) - Legal, accounting, audit, and professional advisors We do not sell personal information. ### 4.2 Securities Counterparties (Accredited Investor Inquiries Only) With respect to accredited-investor inquiries and any subsequent investment activity, we may share information with: - Outside securities counsel - Broker-dealers, transfer agents, or escrow agents engaged in connection with an offering - The Securities and Exchange Commission and state securities regulators on lawful request or as otherwise required by law ### 4.3 Business Transfers If Smartland Energy is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, reorganization, dissolution, or similar transaction, personal information may be transferred or disclosed to the relevant counterparty subject to appropriate confidentiality protections. ### 4.4 Legal Requirements We may disclose personal information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is required to comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or government request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Smartland Energy, our personnel, our counterparties, or the public. ### 4.5 With Your Consent We may disclose personal information for any purpose with your consent. ## 5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies We and our service providers use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies on the Site: - Strictly necessary cookies that enable the Site to function (cannot be disabled) - Performance and analytics cookies to understand how the Site is used (Google Analytics) - Functional cookies to remember preferences You can control cookies through your browser settings or, where presented, through the cookie banner on the Site. Some Site features may not function correctly if cookies are disabled. We do not currently respond to “Do Not Track” browser signals because no consensus standard exists, but we honor Global Privacy Control signals where required by applicable law. ## 6. Accredited-Investor Verification (Investors Only) If you contact us as a prospective investor, U.S. federal securities law (specifically SEC Rule 506(c) of Regulation D) requires that we take reasonable steps to verify your accredited-investor status before completing any sale of securities to you. Verification may involve any of: - Reviewing financial documentation you provide directly (e.g., recent tax returns, brokerage account statements, IRS Forms W-2) - Receiving a written confirmation of your accredited status from a registered broker-dealer, SEC-registered investment adviser, licensed attorney in good standing, or licensed CPA in good standing - Engaging a third-party verification service (e.g., VerifyInvestor.com or similar) to perform verification - Other reasonable steps as may be available under SEC rules and guidance The specific verification method used depends on the documentation you are able to provide and what is most practical given your circumstances. Information provided for verification purposes is used only for that purpose and for related securities-law record-keeping. We retain verification records for the period required by federal and state securities laws. See Section 11. Acceptance of accredited-investor status by Smartland Energy does not constitute investment advice, suitability advice, or any other professional advice. ## 7. Data Security We maintain reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, and alteration, consistent with industry-standard practices. These measures include HTTPS encryption in transit, access controls, secure backup processes, and regular security assessments. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. In the event of a personal data breach affecting your information, we will notify you and the appropriate regulatory authorities as required by applicable law, including the Florida Information Protection Act and other state breach-notification statutes. ## 8. 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For European Economic Area / United Kingdom complaints, you may contact your local supervisory authority. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/ TITLE: Power Projects: 10+ GW Track Record and U.S. Pipeline | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Power projects: more than 10 GW commissioned, financed, and operated by our leadership worldwide, plus U.S. development in Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota. ============================================================================== # Projects The track record under the offtake, and the development pipeline under the term sheet. Diligence (procurement, finance, and the lender's technical advisor) runs on two questions: Has this team built at this scale before? and Is this team building now? These pages answer both. Past Experience documents the projects our leadership has commissioned, financed, and operated globally, more than 10 GW across gas, coal, and renewable assets, with named firms and named programs. Current Initiativescovers what we're developing in the U.S. today: site evaluations, redevelopment bids, partnership structures, and the geographies where our team is on the ground. ### Past Experience More than 10 GW commissioned, financed, and operated by our leadership worldwide. Named firms, named projects, named MW. View Past Experience → ### Current Initiatives Where Smartland is developing today: site evaluations, redevelopment bids, and partnership structures across Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota. View Current Initiatives → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/current-initiatives/ TITLE: Behind-the-Meter Power Pipeline: Current U.S. Initiatives | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Active behind-the-meter power pipeline in Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota. Power online about 24 months from NTP, with initial capacity targeted Q3 2028. ============================================================================== # Current Initiatives Active U.S. development pipeline. Smartland is actively developing dedicated behind-the-meter power infrastructure across the United States, focused on geographies where utility constraints, demand growth, and policy environment favor decentralized generation built at the load. Buyers evaluating a Smartland offtake should expect us to discuss the projects below candidly: what stage they're at, what the schedule drivers are, and where there is or isn't capacity available. ## Active Efforts - Technical and financial evaluation of legacy coal and hydroelectric plants for behind-the-meter repurposing - Strategic site targeting for flexible, dispatchable generation assets to serve data center and industrial load - Competitive redevelopment bids across active U.S. development geographies - Stakeholder and regulatory engagement to align project siting with regional economic development priorities - Partner-driven hybrid system modeling integrating gas, layered solar and storage, and forward-looking firm-power technologies (advanced nuclear, hydrogen) ## The Path to Q3 2028 Dedicated power is built in stages. Here is the development lifecycle and where the pipeline sits today, so a buyer evaluating an offtake, and the lender's technical advisor reviewing it, know exactly what has to happen, and when, between now and power online. 1Development & Site Evaluation (active now) Site identification, technical and financial evaluation, competitive redevelopment bids, and stakeholder/regulatory engagement across Ohio, Virginia, Minnesota, and adjacent regions. 2Site Control & Permitting Securing site rights and advancing the permitting and interconnect scope for a selected site, with land acquisition led in-house. 3Notice to Proceed (NTP) Capacity reserved and contracted; the ~24-month build clock starts at NTP. 4Construction & Commissioning Modular 10 MW RICE generation installed and commissioned in blocks; MV distribution and controls built out and validated. 5Initial Capacity Online (targeted Q3 2028) First customer load energized under a contract-backed SLA with defined outage classifications and remedies. Additional modular 10 MW blocks are added as contracted load grows. ## Featured Initiatives ### Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant 2.9 MW, Brainerd, Minnesota United States, North America View Project → ### Muskingum River Power Plant 1,200 MW site, Washington County, Ohio United States, North America View Project → ## Active Geographies We are currently most active in: - Ohio: Muskingum River redevelopment bid; multiple additional site evaluations across central and eastern Ohio; engagement with state-level energy stakeholders (Ohio Energy Symposium); meetings with Ohio policy leaders on the future of BTM generation - Minnesota: Brainerd Hydroelectric clean-repurposing evaluation - Virginia: site evaluation activity in Tazewell County - West Virginia and adjacent Appalachian regions: energy community siting evaluation - Additional geographies under evaluation; details available under NDA ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/current-initiatives/brainerd-hydroelectric-power-plant/ TITLE: Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 2.9 MW run-of-river hydro evaluation in Brainerd, MN - Smartland declined to proceed. ============================================================================== # Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant 2.9 MW · Brainerd, Minnesota · North America | Location | Brainerd, Minnesota | Existing Capacity | 2.9 MW | Type | Run-of-river hydroelectric, conventional | Number of Units | 5 generating units | Operating Since | 1917 | Current Operator | Brainerd Public Utilities (BPU) | FERC License | P-2533 (existing license expired February 2023) | Average Annual Net Generation | 15,142 MWh | Smartland Status | Evaluation completed - declined to proceed ## Project Overview In early 2024, Smartland Energy conducted a structured evaluation of the Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant (FERC P-2533) in Brainerd, Minnesota - owned and operated by Brainerd Public Utilities - to assess acquisition, modernization, and capacity expansion as a behind-the-meter generation asset. After completing technical, financial, and regulatory diligence, Smartland declined to proceed. ## How Smartland Evaluated This Site ### Stage 1 · Initial Visit and Technical Assessment Smartland's team - including Vadim Kleyner and Richard Hubbard, our senior power systems engineer with thirty-plus years of experience - conducted an on-site technical walk of the facility. Five generating units totaling 2.9 MW operate as a run-of-river system on the Mississippi River, with structures dating to 1917. The walk documented current physical and technological condition, identified upgrade pathways, and located the constraints that would govern any capacity-expansion proposal. ### Stage 2 · Comprehensive Due Diligence The team built redevelopment and business plans, evaluating regulatory compliance under the existing FERC license (P-2533, expired February 2023), environmental implications, and financial viability. The due-diligence pass identified the incremental investment required to upgrade the generating equipment to contemporary standards. ### Stage 3 · Technical Feasibility and Financial Modeling Engineering work assessed potential upgrades to the hydraulic turbine-generator units. The financial team built models evaluating capacity uplift, redevelopment cost, ongoing maintenance, and projected profitability across the operating life cycle. ### Stage 4 · Market Analysis and Regulatory Compliance Smartland engaged directly with Brainerd Public Utilities (BPU), the current owner and operator, on the existing transmission and distribution infrastructure and the regulatory pathway for selling power directly to behind-the-meter customers under FERC. ### Stage 5 · Strategic Decision After completing the diligence pass, the team reviewed findings against Smartland's investment criteria. Despite identifiable upside, the analysis indicated that acquisition was not strategically optimal under our financial and operational thresholds. Smartland declined to proceed. ## What This Says About Smartland For a procurement, finance, or lender team evaluating Smartland on a different opportunity, the Brainerd evaluation is a useful artifact. The page is on the site, including the decision not to proceed, because development discipline is the most procurement-relevant signal a development-stage developer can publish. We engaged with a real asset, completed real diligence, and walked when the math did not support the investment. The same discipline runs through every offtake we structure. ## Projects in North America ### Muskingum River Power Plant 1,200 MW site, Washington County, Ohio United States, North America View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/current-initiatives/muskingum-river-power-plant/ TITLE: Muskingum River Power Plant | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 1,200 MW legacy AEP coal site in Washington County, Ohio - active redevelopment bid. ============================================================================== # Muskingum River Power Plant 1,200 MW Site · Washington County, Ohio · North America | Location | Washington County, Ohio | Site Capacity (legacy) | 1,200 MW nameplate (coal-fired) | Site Status | Legacy AEP coal-fired plant; redevelopment opportunity | Smartland Activity | Redevelopment bid submitted; ongoing evaluation | Region | PJM Interconnection footprint ## Project Overview Smartland Energy is actively pursuing the redevelopment opportunity at the Muskingum River Power Plant site in Washington County, Ohio - a former American Electric Power (AEP) coal-fired generating site with a legacy nameplate capacity of 1,200 MW. Smartland submitted a redevelopment bid for the site as part of our broader Ohio development pipeline, and the project remains under active evaluation. The site offers a combination of attributes that matter to a behind-the-meter buyer: existing transmission interconnection, water access, brownfield permitting precedents, and proximity to PJM-region demand growth driven by AI compute and data center build-out. ## How Smartland Is Evaluating This Site ### Stage 1 · Initial Visit and Technical Assessment Smartland's team - including Vadim Kleyner and Richard Hubbard, our senior power systems engineer with thirty-plus years of experience - conducted an on-site technical walk of the legacy facility. The plant carries approximately 1,200 MW of legacy nameplate capacity and presents multiple modernization, repurposing, and partial-redevelopment pathways. The walk documented structural and operational condition and identified the strategic-investment levers most likely to align with current market and regulatory direction. ### Stage 2 · Due Diligence Smartland is conducting structured diligence on environmental compliance, brownfield-site treatment, interconnection rights, water access, and the specific permitting pathway available for a BTM gas redevelopment. The diligence package is being built to support a procurement-grade conversation with potential off-takers - either modular RICE or combined-cycle gas turbine architecture, sized to the off-taker's load. ### Stage 3 · Off-Taker Engagement Active where the timing fits. Buyers evaluating sites in the PJM footprint with 100 MW+ load and a 24-month-plus go-live window should engage with Smartland directly to discuss whether Muskingum or an adjacent Ohio site is the right fit for their requirement. Request Capacity Availability → ## Why Ohio Ohio is currently a primary development geography for Smartland. Beyond the Muskingum redevelopment, Smartland has conducted multiple site evaluations across central and eastern Ohio and has engaged at the policy level - including attendance at the Ohio Energy Symposium and direct meetings with Ohio policy leaders on the future of behind-the-meter generation. The state combines real demand growth, energy-community siting eligibility for federal credit bonuses, and a regulatory environment that supports dedicated generation for industrial and data-center loads. ## Project Gallery ## Projects in North America ### Brainerd Hydroelectric Power Plant 2.9 MW, Brainerd, Minnesota United States, North America View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/ TITLE: Past Experience: 10+ GW of Power Projects Commissioned | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: More than 10 GW commissioned, financed, and operated by our leadership: 1,450 MW supercritical coal in the Philippines, 1,200 MW combined-cycle in South Korea. ============================================================================== # Past Experience Decades of global energy experience: named firms, named programs, named MW. Smartland Energy is early in its own development lifecycle. The track record under the company is the experience our leadership and senior advisors have brought from prior roles, more than 10 GW of installed capacity across gas, coal, and renewable assets globally, in commissioning, financing, regulatory, and operating roles. The named firms and named projects below are what an internal procurement-diligence or lender-review team actually needs to see: who, where, how big, and who they were working under at the time. ## Their prior work includes: A 1,200 MW combined-cycle gas plant in South Korea, where team members advised on commissioning strategy and high-efficiency thermal integration through Foster Wheeler. A 600 MW gas turbine facility in Texas, supported under Vistra Energy, where our leadership contributed to O&M optimization and long-term capital structuring. A 1,450 MW supercritical coal facility in the Philippines with Aboitiz Power, where Smartland's current senior advisor led site-wide commissioning across boilers, turbines, and seawater conversion systems. More than ten projects in China and Southeast Asiainvolving GE turbines, anthracite PC boilers, and CFB systems developed and commissioned under Foster Wheeler's global deployment teams. U.S.-based power modernization and startup leadership at plants such as Longview (770 MW, WV) and Sandow 5 (2x330 MW, TX). This cumulative experience spans gas, coal, and renewable technologies in complex regulatory environments with multinational workforces. It's the foundation under Smartland's current portfolio of dedicated, behind-the-meter generation assets: modular RICE units where ramp and rolling maintenance matter, combined-cycle gas turbines where steady high-efficiency baseload best fits the load. ## Project Portfolio ### Toledo Power Complex 2 × 167 MW units, Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines Philippines, Asia View Project → ### West Offaly Power Station 150 MW, Shannonbridge, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ### GNPower Dinginin Coal-Fired Power Plant 2 × 725 MW units, Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines Philippines, Asia View Project → ### Lough Ree Power Station 100 MW, Lanesborough, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ### Longview Power Project 700 MW, Morgantown, West Virginia United States, North America View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/gnpower-dinginin-coal-fired-power-plant/ TITLE: GNPower Dinginin Coal-Fired Power Plant | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 1,450 MW supercritical coal plant in Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines - Aboitiz Power. ============================================================================== # GNPower Dinginin Coal-Fired Power Plant 2 × 725 MW Units · Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines · Asia Pacific Region | Location | Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines | Total Capacity | 1,450 MW | Configuration | 2 × 725 MW units | Technology | Supercritical boiler and turbine generator with flue-gas desulfurization | Commercial Operation | 2022 | Significance | Largest coal-fired plant in the Philippines; roughly 7% of combined Luzon and Visayas grid energy ## Project Overview GNPower Dinginin (GNPD) is a 1,450 MW supercritical coal-fired plant in Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines, comprising two 725 MW units commissioned in 2022. As the largest coal-fired plant in the country, GNPD supplies approximately 7% of the combined Luzon and Visayas grid energy demand. Both units are equipped with flue-gas desulfurization (FGD), enabling fuel flexibility across coal grades while meeting emissions requirements. ## Why This Project Matters For Procurement Diligence On GNPD, Smartland's senior advisor was embedded directly within the project site team overseeing the EPC contractor - tasked with monitoring site-team performance, ensuring accurate reporting of site activities, supporting problem troubleshooting, and verifying that contract requirements were met. The off-taker (the Philippine grid) maintained no site presence, and the project's partial owner held no role in day-to-day site management, so disciplined, on-the-ground oversight of execution and reporting was essential. The plant was constructed and commissioned during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which compounded the logistical and scheduling challenges of a build at this scale. Specific responsibilities executed on this engagement included: - Construction monitoring - on-site evaluations against Prudent Utility Practices, with particular attention given the contractor profile (Chinese contractor team) - Project approvals - review and comment on engineering, vendor, and design submittals - Change-order evaluations - common-sense review of contractor change-order requests, with informed escalation to ownership - Payment-request review - verification against direct site observation before owner approval - Vendor-payment support - including modified payment plans where necessary to preserve vendor relationships and community relations - Site monitoring with commercial impact tracking - financial, legal, and procurement support coordinated with the Coal BU - Legal-claim handling - including notices of lien, with escalation paths for major claims requiring board approval - Document and correspondence management - including document control system (Syncplicity) administration - O&M manual review as required - Onshore construction management assistance during commissioning phases - Owner's Representative nomination and confirmation for ongoing roles - Construction reporting - review and comment on monthly construction reports - Document-control system access management - Site-access and documentation coordination with GNPD ownership The procurement-relevant signal: this is the same kind of independent oversight discipline a sophisticated off-taker today wants their development partner to have lived through. When Smartland delivers a BTM project under an offtake, we have the muscle memory of having sat on the other side of the table on a 1,450 MW asset. ## Notable Features - Largest coal-fired plant in the Philippines - Supercritical boiler / turbine technology - Advanced emissions control via flue-gas desulfurization - Multi-grade coal flexibility for fuel pricing optionality - Modern digital control systems - Major contributor to Luzon and Visayas grid stability ## Project Gallery ## Projects in Asia Pacific Region ### Toledo Power Complex 2 × 167 MW units, Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines Philippines, Asia View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/longview-power-project/ TITLE: Longview Power Project | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 700 MW supercritical HELE coal plant near Morgantown, West Virginia - Foster Wheeler. ============================================================================== # Longview Power Project 700 MW · Morgantown, West Virginia · North America | Location | Maidsville, Monongalia County, West Virginia | Total Capacity | 700 MW (net) | Configuration | 1 × 700 MW unit | Technology | Advanced supercritical with Benson Once Through boiler | Commercial Operation | 2011 | Recognition | One of the cleanest coal plants in North America (HELE design) ## Project Overview The Longview Power Project, located near Maidsville in Monongalia County, West Virginia, is a 700 MW supercritical coal-fired generating station commissioned in 2011. The plant is built on a high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) design - superior heat-rate efficiency, reduced fuel consumption, and lower emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter than legacy coal-fired plants. It is recognized as one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in North America. ## Why This Project Matters For Procurement Diligence Smartland's senior leadership managed construction and commissioning for Foster Wheeler's scope of supply, which included Benson Once Through boiler technology and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) for advanced NOx control. The Benson Once Through architecture and the SCR scope are the same families of equipment we evaluate, specify, and integrate today on combined-cycle gas turbine projects with bottoming-cycle steam - the technology lineage runs directly into our current behind-the-meter offering. The procurement-relevant signal for a buyer evaluating Smartland's CCGT capability: the team that hands you the heat-rate and emissions performance specifications has commissioned the equipment in the field, on a plant recognized as among the cleanest of its class. ## Notable Features - HELE (high efficiency, low emissions) supercritical design - Benson Once Through boiler technology - Selective Catalytic Reduction for NOx control - Superior heat-rate efficiency vs. legacy coal-fired baseline - Major regional employer in north-central West Virginia - Reduced SO₂, NOₓ, and particulate matter emissions ## Project Gallery ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/lough-ree-power-station/ TITLE: Lough Ree Power Station | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 100 MW peat-fired plant in Lanesborough, Ireland - Foster Wheeler EPC. ============================================================================== # Lough Ree Power Station 100 MW · Lanesborough, Ireland · Europe | Location | Lanesborough, County Longford, Ireland | Total Capacity | 100 MW | Type | Peat-fired, brownfield development | Commercial Operation | April 2004 | Off-taker | Electricity Supply Board (ESB) | Sister Plant | West Offaly Power Station (150 MW) | Decommissioned | December 2020 (peat fuel permission refused) ## Project Overview Lough Ree Power Station was a 100 MW peat-fired generating station in Lanesborough, Ireland, commissioned in April 2004 to replace an older facility on the same site. Lough Ree and the larger West Offaly Power Station were sister projects developed by Foster Wheeler Oy under the same EPC structure for the Irish utility, ESB. Both plants operated until December 2020, when permission to continue burning peat was refused under Ireland's transition off indigenous peat fuel. ## Why This Project Matters For Procurement Diligence Lough Ree experienced the same first-year design oversight as West Offaly - peat fuel chemistry drove severe corrosion in the baghouse and absorber towers. The corrective-action campaign that followed was run across both plants in parallel. Smartland's senior leadership served as site manager during that two-year period and was responsible for the repairs, the technical resolution, and the commercial settlement that resulted in ESB dropping the $1.3 billion lawsuit prepared against the contractor. The signal for an off-taker evaluating Smartland today: when a project goes wrong (and on long-cycle infrastructure, projects do go wrong), our leadership has demonstrably brought a billion-dollar contractor-vs-utility dispute back to operational and commercial resolution. Building from greenfield is one skill. Recovering from a crisis is a different skill, and we have done it twice on the same off-taker. ## Notable Features - Indigenous (peat) fuel utilization - Regional economic contribution to County Longford - Advanced fuel handling systems - Environmental compliance systems including absorber tower (rebuilt during the corrective-action period) ## Project Gallery ## Projects in Europe ### West Offaly Power Station 150 MW, Shannonbridge, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/toledo-power-complex/ TITLE: Toledo Power Complex | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 2 × 167 MW CFB coal plant in Cebu, Philippines, with Aboitiz Power. ============================================================================== # Toledo Power Complex 2 × 167 MW Units · Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines · Asia Pacific Region | Location | Barangay Bato, Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines | Total Capacity | 334 MW | Configuration | 2 × 167 MW units (Unit 3 in development as of 2025) | Type | Coal-fired, Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) | Operator | Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) - Aboitiz Power / Vivant joint venture | Off-taker | Visayas grid ## Project Overview The Toledo Power Complex, operated by Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) - a joint venture between Aboitiz Power Corporation and Vivant Corporation - is a 334 MW coal-fired generating station in Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines. The plant uses Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boiler technology and Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for emissions, with a coal dome storage facility for fuel containment and a Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) feeding real-time data to government regulators. A third unit is in development, with site construction having begun in 2025. ## Why This Project Matters For Procurement Diligence Smartland's leadership worked alongside the Aboitiz Power Project Development and Execution team to manage site construction and commissioning across both 167 MW units, and supported the project development scope for Unit 3. The procurement-relevant signals: working inside Aboitiz Power's project framework rather than as an outside contractor required operating to the off-taker's cadence, governance, and reporting standards directly - the same posture our team takes today inside a behind-the-meter offtake. The CFB and seawater treatment systems on the Toledo site also exposed the team to operating equipment with multi-fuel flexibility and demanding water-side chemistry - both relevant to industrial CHP campuses where similar equipment is part of integrated thermal recovery. ## Notable Features - Critical power infrastructure for the Cebu / Visayas grid - CFB boiler technology with multi-fuel capability - Advanced environmental controls (BACT, CEMS) - Coal dome storage facility for fuel containment - High availability performance over the operating period - Industrial sector power supply, including direct supply to industrial off-takers in the Visayas region ## Project Gallery ## Projects in Asia Pacific Region ### GNPower Dinginin Coal-Fired Power Plant 2 × 725 MW units, Mariveles, Bataan, Philippines Philippines, Asia View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/projects/past-experience/west-offaly-power-station/ TITLE: West Offaly Power Station | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: 150 MW peat-fired plant in Shannonbridge, Ireland - Foster Wheeler EPC. ============================================================================== # West Offaly Power Station 150 MW · Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland · Europe | Location | Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland | Total Capacity | 150 MW | Type | Peat-fired, brownfield development | Configuration | Single unit | Commercial Operation | 2005 | Off-taker | Electricity Supply Board (ESB) | Decommissioned | December 2020 (peat fuel permission refused) ## Project Overview The West Offaly Power Station was a 150 MW peat-fired generating station in Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland - at commissioning, the largest peat-fired plant in the country. The plant operated from 2005 until December 2020, when permission to continue burning peat was refused under Ireland's transition off indigenous peat fuel. ## Why This Project Matters For Procurement Diligence Foster Wheeler Oy developed this brownfield project as the EPC contractor and held end-to-end responsibility. In the first year of commercial operation, a design oversight tied to peat fuel chemistry caused severe corrosion of the baghouse and absorber towers. ESB, the Irish utility off-taker, prepared a $1.3 billion lawsuit against the contractor. Smartland's senior leadership - operating as site manager during the corrective-action period under Foster Wheeler - was responsible for executing the repairs and resolving the outstanding technical and commercial issues over a two-year period. The result: ESB dropped the lawsuit. The plant returned to commercial availability and operated for fifteen years until the regulatory close-out in 2020. For a procurement, finance, or lender team evaluating Smartland today, this is the relevant signal: our leadership has run the field response on a project where the off-taker had filed a billion-dollar claim - and brought that project back to compliant operation. Crisis-grade execution is a different skill than greenfield commissioning, and we have done it. ## Notable Features - Indigenous (peat) fuel utilization - Grid stability contribution to the Irish system - Modern environmental controls including baghouse and absorber tower systems - High availability rates post-corrective action ## Project Gallery ## Projects in Europe ### Lough Ree Power Station 100 MW, Lanesborough, Ireland Ireland, Europe View Project → ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/pure-salmon-virginia-breaks-ground-again-with-a-scaled-vision-and-strategic-momentum/ TITLE: Reviving Growth: Pure Salmon Virginia Resumes a $300M Industrial Build | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: A large industrial groundbreaking in Virginia underscores the pattern: industrial buyers are anchoring the next wave of dedicated power demand. ============================================================================== # Reviving Growth: Pure Salmon Virginia Resumes a $300M Industrial Build ← All Industry NewsJune 20, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News After years of dormancy and speculation, one of Appalachia's most ambitious industrial builds is officially back in motion. Pure Salmon, the global aquaculture company backed by Singapore-based 8F Asset Management, has resumed work on its inland salmon facility in Southwest Virginia - a $300+ million project now positioned at the intersection of food security, infrastructure development, and rural industrial revival. The 200-acre site, previously a rugged coalfield, is being reimagined into a vertically integrated aquaculture campus capable of producing 10,000 tons of Atlantic salmon annually. When fully operational, the site is expected to support 200+ full-time roles and become a foundational asset in reshaping the region's economic identity. “It's the largest private investment in Tazewell and Russell County history,” said Delegate Will Morefield. “And it demonstrates this region's readiness to execute at a global scale.” ## From Legacy Land to Modern Industrial Hub The site transformation has been both literal and structural: over 2 million cubic yards of earth have been moved to stabilize a landscape known more for mining than manufacturing. Now entering a critical construction phase, Pure Salmon's team is implementing surcharge compaction techniques to prepare for nine facilities, including: - A flagship 800,000 sq. ft. main production building - Hatcheries, grow-out facilities, and processing centers - On-site utilities for water and energy reliability Behind the scenes, regional stakeholders are aligning to support the project's scale: - Tazewell County is investing up to $10M in water, sewer, and pump-station upgrades to meet the site's 300K–400K gallon daily water requirement - Russell County is leading road development for direct access - Appalachian Power is planning new transmission and substation infrastructure tailored to the facility's power demand These investments reflect a broader shift: rural regions repositioning for year-round, industrial-grade operations. ## Workforce and Community Alignment Strategic partnerships are extending beyond bricks and mortar. Pure Salmon has contributed $200,000 toward tuition for local high-school graduates and is co-developing a water-management and aquaculture training program at Southwest Virginia Community College, in collaboration with Virginia Tech. “We're not just constructing buildings,” said Karim Ghannam, CIO at 8F Asset Management. “We're cultivating a long-term workforce and proving that sustainable food production can anchor resilient regional economies.” ## Why Buyers and Off-Takers Should Watch For sophisticated industrial buyers and developers evaluating Southwest Virginia and adjacent Appalachian regions, Pure Salmon Virginia is a useful reference point: - Resilience: Inland production at scale eliminates reliance on coastal ports and mitigates supply-chain risk - a model applicable across other industrial categories that need stable, dedicated power and water. - Resource alignment: The site's access to abundant land, labor, and fresh water demonstrates the broader infrastructure profile of the region - relevant for any large industrial load evaluating siting in Tazewell County or adjacent counties. - Policy alignment: Local and state governments have demonstrated proactive coordination with private-sector timelines and workforce needs. - Power infrastructure precedent: Appalachian Power's planned transmission and substation work for Pure Salmon establishes utility-side capacity in the region - relevant for adjacent BTM development that would offset, rather than rely on, the same constrained infrastructure. It's more than a fish farm. It's a closed-loop, recession-resistant model for how industrial infrastructure can scale in strategic geographies, without coastal constraints. Smartland Energy continues to track high-impact industrial builds across the U.S. - and is actively evaluating dedicated power for industrial off-takers in Southwest Virginia and adjacent geographies. See current initiatives → · How we structure power for industrial buyers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/quiet-efficient-power-a-214-mw-rice-plant-designed-for-communities/ TITLE: Quiet, Efficient Power: A 214 MW RICE Plant Designed for Communities | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: A 214 MW RICE plant case study illustrating how modular gas generation can be sited near communities without the noise penalty of legacy infrastructure. ============================================================================== # Quiet, Efficient Power: A 214 MW RICE Plant Designed for Communities ← All Industry NewsSeptember 12, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News As communities look for reliable, flexible sources of power, concerns about noise from new energy projects often come first. Today, we share how modern reciprocating internal combustion engine (RICE) power plants are specifically engineered to provide significant electricity output while maintaining peace and quiet in surrounding neighborhoods. ### A Case Study: 214 MW Liberty Station Project, Casey County, Kentucky East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has designed a 214 MW RICE facility on a 100-acre site in Casey County, Kentucky. Detailed design and modeling work show how such a plant can fit within a modest footprint while keeping sound levels extremely low at the property line. ### Noise Impact: How Quiet is Quiet? Independent acoustic studies modeled the plant operating at 100% load: - At the facility center: Noise levels reach 60–65 dBA (similar to a dishwasher in the next room). - At the property boundary: Levels drop to about 55 dBA, just above the quiet hum of an office environment. - Beyond the boundary: Noise diminishes to 40–45 dBA, comparable to a quiet residential neighborhood or a farm field with birdcalls. For context, a passing diesel truck at 50 feet measures 80 dBA, while a jet flyover can exceed 100 dBA. The RICE facility operates far below these thresholds. ### Proven Design for Noise Reduction The Liberty Station project highlights standard industry measures used to reduce sound: - Engine Hall Enclosure: All 12 Wärtsilä W18V50DF engines are fully enclosed in an acoustically treated building. - Exhaust Silencers: Advanced silencers on each stack minimize high-frequency sound. - Quiet Cooling Systems: Radiators equipped with low-noise, variable-speed fans further reduce operating noise. - Site Layout: The 100-acre site provides natural buffering and distance between the plant and neighboring homes. ### Why RICE Topology Matters for BTM Buyers This design illustrates the same principle that runs through Smartland Energy's modular RICE architecture: a 214 MW site built as a set of 12 reciprocating engines delivers native N+2 redundancy, supports rolling maintenance without site outages, and operates quietly enough to be a good neighbor. The same topology that makes Liberty Station community-compatible is what makes Smartland's modular RICE units the right fit for data center, industrial, and defense buyers facing community-acceptance and permitting timelines as part of their procurement reality. ### Moving Forward Reliable, flexible, and quiet power generation designed with communities in mind isn't aspirational - it's the technology Smartland Energy uses for the buyers we serve. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/request-capacity-availability/ TITLE: Request Capacity Availability - 100 to 400 MW Per Site | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Tell us your MW need, schedule, and constraint. Our development team responds within 1 business day. Per-site capacity 100 to 400 MW, power targeted Q3 2028. ============================================================================== # Request Capacity Availability Tell us your MW need, schedule, and constraint. We respond within 1 business day. Smartland Energy's initial capacity is targeted for power online in Q3 2028, approximately 24 months after Notice to Proceed. Capacity is delivered as decentralized, behind-the-metergeneration built at your load: modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbine plants, sized to your actual load shape. Per-site capacity ranges from 100 to 300 MW for traditional air-cooled deployments and up to 400 MW per site for liquid-cooled high-density data centers. CHP available where beneficial. Segmented MV distribution, UPS-backed controls, and black-start capability. Contract-backed SLA at the POD. This form goes directly to our development team, not a marketing queue. If your inputs match an active site (current evaluations include Ohio, Virginia, and Minnesota), we will respond with a fit assessment, a draft schedule alignment, and the specific diligence items we need from you to move toward a term sheet. ## Your Request Don't fill this out: Your Name *Company Name * Work Email *Phone Target Capacity (MW) *Select…50 to 100 MW100 to 300 MW (air-cooled)300 to 400 MW (liquid-cooled high-density)400 to 600 MW600 MW+Liquid-cooled high-density data centers: typically up to 400 MW per site.Go-Live WindowSelect…24 to 30 months (Q3 2028)30 to 42 months42+ monthsFlexible / undecided Buyer TypeSelect…Data center / AIIndustrialDefenseOtherBuyer Type (other) Primary Constraint (schedule, capacity, or siting) *By submitting this form, you consent to be contacted by Smartland Energy about your request via email, phone, or text. Your information will not be shared with third parties. Submit Request ## What Happens After You Submit - Within 1 business day: Our development team reviews your inputs against our active pipeline and confirms whether Smartland is a fit for your MW, schedule, and constraint. If grid power on your timeline is the better answer, we will say so. - Within 5 business days: If fit is confirmed, we schedule a 30-minute scoping call to align on POD boundary expectations, architecture (RICE vs. CCGT), and the next set of information we need. - Within 30 days of scoping: If both parties want to proceed, we issue a term sheet and capacity reservation framework. Initial capacity targeted for Q3 2028 is finite. Submitting this form starts the review outlined above; it creates no obligation on your side. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/reserve-power/ TITLE: Reserve Dedicated Power - 100 to 400 MW Behind-The-Meter | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Reserve capacity in our 100 to 300 MW combined-cycle gas project, or modular 10 MW RICE units with N+2. Power online ~24 months from Notice to Proceed. ============================================================================== # Dedicated Behind-The-Meter Power For Data Centers, Industrial, And Defense. Reserve capacity in our 100 to 300 MW combined-cycle natural gas project, or in a modular 10 MW RICE unit deployment sized to your campus, up to 400 MW per site for liquid-cooled high-density data centers. Power online approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed. Initial capacity is targeted for Q3 2028. Request Capacity Availability(877) 313-5777 Tell us your MW need and target go-live window. We'll respond within 1 business day. Don't fill this out: NameCompany EmailPhone How can we help?Send Message ## Built For Mission-Critical Operations ### N+2 Reliability, Modular By Design Firm delivery designed around N+2, natively achieved through 10 MW RICE units, or via redundant trains in our combined-cycle gas turbine architecture. Both topologies include POD A and B demarcation, segmented MV electrical architecture, UPS-backed controls, and black start. ### CHP Available Where Beneficial Combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk, converting waste heat into usable thermal energy for adjacent facilities, campus loads, district heating, or industrial steam offtakers. ### Optional Cyber-Isolated Control Systems Optional cyber-isolated control architecture to segregate plant controls from customer networks, with hardened interfaces tailored to data center, industrial, or defense security expectations. ### A Track Record You Can Diligence Leadership team with experience commissioning 10+ GW of large-scale power assets, including West Offaly (150 MW), Lough Ree (100 MW), and GNPower Dinginin (2x725 MW). See past experience → ## Why Teams Choose Smartland Energy | | What You Get | How It Helps You | Capacity range: 100 to 400 MW per site | 100 to 300 MW per site for traditional air-cooled deployments; up to 400 MW per site for liquid-cooled high-density compute, where higher rack density concentrates more MW into a smaller physical footprint | Modular 10 MW RICE units or combined-cycle gas turbines | Architecture is matched to your load shape: ramp behavior and rolling maintenance get RICE; steady high-efficiency baseload gets CCGT. Both scale to the upper end of the capacity range | Fast start and load following generation | Handles volatile AI and HPC ramps without forcing you to oversize utility capacity | Revenue-grade metering and settlement at the POD | Billing data your finance team can reconcile and your lender's technical advisor can verify | Fuel price risk options | Indexed, capped, collared, or hedged structures that match your risk tolerance | Modular, staged build | Add capacity in 10 MW units (RICE) or in train-level increments (CCGT) without redesigning the entire plant or stranding early capex | Permitting and compliance execution plan | Reduces schedule surprises and keeps operations aligned with emissions and reporting requirements | Bankable contracting structure with clear remedies | Contract-backed SLA with defined outage classifications and milestone-backed credit support, terms your procurement team can underwrite | CHP available where beneficial | Future-add thermal recovery without retrofit risk, where utilization economics justify it Book a 15-Min Call ## Core Principle ### Continuously Balanced To Your Demand Decentralized generation, built at the load: on-site power, battery storage, and intelligent control systems balance your demand in real time. This is dedicated BTM capacity, sized to your load, independent of centralized grid expansion, and brought online when you need it. Balanced in real time ## Next Steps 01 ### Reserve capacity Tell us your expected MW draw, ramp profile, and target go-live date. 02 ### Align technical specs Our engineers map architecture (RICE vs. CCGT), interconnect, heat recovery (optional CHP), and security requirements. 03 ### Execute PPA Lock in long-term, cost-predictable power on terms structured for procurement, finance, and lender review. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/secure-power-by-2028/ TITLE: How to Secure 100-400 MW of Dedicated Power by 2028 | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: The step-by-step path from capacity inquiry to energized load: reservation, Notice to Proceed, ~24-month build, Q3 2028 initial capacity. What we need from you and when. ============================================================================== # How to Secure 100-400 MW by 2028 The path from first call to energized load - and what has to happen at each step. ## Work Backward From Your Go-Live Date A 2028 go-live leaves no room for a multi-year interconnection queue. Dedicated behind-the-meter capacity is decentralized generation built at your load, on a clock the project controls. That means approximately 24 months from Notice to Proceed, with initial capacity targeted to come online in Q3 2028. That timeline only works if the commercial steps happen early. Here is the whole path, in order - the same sequence your procurement team and lender's technical advisor will walk through. Q3 2028 Initial capacity target - finite and reserved in sequence 100-400 MW Air-cooled to liquid-cooled, high-density deployments ## The Path, Step by Step 1 ### A 15-Minute Scoping Call Your load profile, density roadmap, redundancy requirements, and target dates. We tell you plainly whether we can serve it - and when. If grid power is still the right call for your situation, we say so. 2 ### Capacity Availability Request A formal response on available MW by timeline, at a defined Point of Delivery. Request availability → 3 ### Reservation and Contracting Capacity reserved under contract terms written for procurement, lender, and investor diligence: defined outage classifications, remedies, revenue-grade metering, and milestone-backed credit support. 4 ### Notice to Proceed The clock starts. From NTP, schedule is driven by permitting, equipment lead times, and site-specific scope. 5 ### ~24-Month Build Modular 10 MW RICE generation installed and commissioned in blocks; segmented MV distribution; A/B delivery at the POD; UPS-backed controls and black-start capability. Executed by a team with a 10+ GW track record. 6 ### Energization Under SLA Load comes online under a contract-backed SLA - not marketing uptime. Capacity scales with your load. ## What We Need From You The scoping conversation moves fastest when you bring three things: an anticipated load range (even rough), a density roadmap (air-cooled today, liquid-cooled later is a common answer), and the date your load must be live. Site preferences help but are not required - we evaluate sites against your requirements, not the other way around. Compare this path against the interconnection queue → Download the brief: The 24-Month Path to Power (PDF) → ## Why Order Matters Initial capacity is finite and reserved in sequence. A reservation made this year holds a 2028 position; the same conversation a year from now is a conversation about later availability. That is not a sales device - it is how project-financed generation works. Dedicated BTM capacity for data centers, industrial facilities, and defense installations. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-energy-advances-site-evaluations-in-eastern-ohio/ TITLE: Smartland Energy Advances Site Evaluations in Eastern Ohio | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Eastern Ohio sits at the intersection of three procurement-relevant factors: gas pipelines, industrial-zoned land, and energy-community bonus eligibility. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy Advances Site Evaluations in Eastern Ohio ← All NewsroomAugust 7, 2025 - Victor F. - Newsroom Smartland Energy continued a series of site visits across Eastern Ohio, advancing our evaluation of potential development opportunities in one of the country's most energy-active regions. The team visited multiple locations across the eastern corridor, assessing land characteristics, proximity to gas and transmission infrastructure, permitting considerations, and overall energy alignment. These visits are part of a broader strategy to identify build-ready sites that can support the next wave of dedicated, behind-the-meter power infrastructure. Smartland's ongoing focus includes areas where legacy gas infrastructure intersects with modern grid challenges, creating conditions for scalable, modular, and behind-the-meter solutions that meet both reliability and resilience needs. Eastern Ohio in particular sits at the intersection of three procurement-relevant factors: existing gas pipelines, available industrial-zoned land, and energy-community bonus eligibility for federal credits. For a buyer evaluating Mid-Atlantic or Midwest sites with 100 MW+ load and a 24-month-plus go-live window, Eastern Ohio is one of the geographies where Smartland's pipeline overlaps most directly with available capacity. Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-energy-attends-ohio-energy-symposium/ TITLE: What We Heard at the Ohio Energy Symposium: Why Buyers Should Pay Attention to Ohio's Power Pipeline | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Three implications for sophisticated power buyers from the Ohio Energy Symposium: queue length, the BTM coalition, and the energy-community siting opportunity. ============================================================================== # What We Heard at the Ohio Energy Symposium: Why Buyers Should Pay Attention to Ohio's Power Pipeline ← All NewsroomMarch 2026 - Newsroom Smartland Energy attended the Ohio Energy Symposium, joining industry leaders, utilities, regulators, and stakeholders to discuss the state's growing power needs. One takeaway was clear: Ohio needs more reliable energy, fast. Demand is rising across data centers, manufacturing, and electrification, and the grid is under increasing pressure to keep up. For sophisticated power buyers evaluating where to site the next 100 MW+ load, three implications from the Symposium matter: - Ohio's interconnection queue tells the same story as PJM and CAISO - utility-only paths to power are stretching out. Behind-the-meter generation is no longer an exotic alternative; it's becoming the speed-to-power option for buyers who can't wait on transmission upgrades. - The state-level coalition supporting BTM is unusually broad - utilities, manufacturers, regulators, and economic-development authorities are aligned on the need for dedicated generation, which materially shortens the political-risk dimension of project siting. - The energy-community siting opportunity is real- Ohio's former coal sites and adjacent areas qualify for federal energy-community bonus credits, which flow through to delivered energy price for the offtaker. For Smartland Energy, the conversations reinforced that the work underway in Ohio is timely and necessary. Reliable, deliverable power is becoming a key driver of economic growth, and the market is aligning around solutions that can be executed in real-world timelines. See current initiatives in Ohio → We'll continue sharing updates as we engage with Ohio partners and advance our development strategy in the region. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-energy-ceo-attends-chicago-council-on-global-affairs-event/ TITLE: Smartland Energy CEO Attends Chicago Council on Global Affairs Event | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Engaging with global leaders on energy security and infrastructure modernization. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy CEO Attends Chicago Council on Global Affairs Event Engaging with Global Leaders on Energy Security and Infrastructure ← All NewsroomOctober 30, 2025 - Victor F. - Newsroom Smartland Energy CEO Vadim Kleyner attended the Chicago Council on Global Affairs event, joining global leaders and industry executives for discussions centered on energy security, infrastructure modernization, and the evolving U.S. power sector. The event brought together influential figures including former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Michael Polsky, founder and CEO of Invenergy, one of the nation's largest developers of renewable and clean energy projects. The Chicago Council's program focused on energy security, infrastructure modernization, and the role of dedicated power infrastructure in supporting industrial and digital growth. For sophisticated power buyers - hyperscalers, large industrial campuses, defense installations - the same themes reappear in every conversation: utility constraints, schedule risk, and the increasing role of BTM generation as a path to deliverable megawatts on a defined timeline. Smartland Energy's participation reflects a continuing focus on aligning energy development, capital, and policy under one mission: delivering reliable, community-aligned power infrastructure that meets both local and national needs. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-energy-in-d-c-putting-real-world-power-challenges-on-the-hill/ TITLE: Smartland Energy in D.C.: Putting Real World Power Challenges on the Hill | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: CEO Vadim Kleyner spent the week in Washington as part of a bipartisan delegation, discussing reliability under rising load, speed-to-power, and permitting. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy in D.C.: Putting Real World Power Challenges on the Hill ← All NewsroomOctober 2025 - Newsroom Smartland Energy CEO Vadim Kleyner spent the week in Washington as part of a bipartisan delegation organized by Igor Lon (Crest Invest), joining sessions with both a Republican Club and a Democratic Club. The agenda for Smartland Energy was broad and practical: real grid constraints, the surge in industrial and AI load, pathways for behind-the-meter (BTM) power, and how private developers can help improve reliability. Across meetings with congressional offices, including conversations with Rep. Brad Sherman and Rep. Kevin Kiley, and roundtables with industry leaders, discussions centered on: - Reliability under rising load: Data centers, advanced manufacturing, and electrification are outpacing interconnection timelines. - Speed-to-power: Where BTM projects, microgrids, and modular assets can relieve local bottlenecks without waiting on multi-year transmission builds. - Permitting and predictability: Practical reforms that shorten cycle times while keeping communities at the table. - Critical equipment and supply chains: Transformers were one example among many critical items - important, but not the whole story. CEO Vadim Kleyner also met Igor Pasternak, founder of Aeroscraft, whose work includes critical grid equipment in short supply. The exchange underscored a larger theme of the trip: pairing American industrial capacity with private capital to accelerate deployment. ### Why it matters for buyers Smartland Energy's model - integrating site selection, fuel access, permitting strategy, and behind-the-meter generation under one roof - is designed for the exact challenges highlighted in D.C.: deliverable megawatts, sooner, with community compatibility. For a power buyer evaluating sites in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, the policy direction visible from D.C. is consistent with what we hear from procurement teams: build behind the meter, contract for it on procurement-grade terms, and don't wait on the queue. ### What's next Following the trip, Smartland is engaging with stakeholders on pilot opportunities that align local economic development with near-term power solutions in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Request capacity availability → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-energy-leaders-discuss-future-of-behind-the-meter-energy-in-ohio-with-vivek-ramaswamy/ TITLE: Smartland Energy Leaders Discuss Future of Behind-the-Meter Energy in Ohio with Vivek Ramaswamy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Conversation focused on Ohio's pro-business policy environment, gas resources, available industrial-zoned land, and growing demand from data centers and advanced manufacturing. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy Leaders Discuss Future of Behind-the-Meter Energy in Ohio with Vivek Ramaswamy ← All NewsroomAugust 2025 - Newsroom At a recent meeting, Smartland Energy's leadership - Vadim Kleyner and Irina Kleyner - met with entrepreneur and political leader Vivek Ramaswamy to discuss the future of behind-the-meter (BTM) energy development across Ohio. The conversation focused on Ohio's favorable conditions for BTM development: a pro-business policy environment, extensive natural-gas resources, available industrial-zoned land, and growing demand from data centers and advanced manufacturing. The meeting also covered strategic opportunities to expand local energy infrastructure on real-world timelines and the role private developers can play in pairing local economic development with deliverable megawatts. For defense, industrial, and data-center buyers evaluating Ohio sites, the policy alignment visible from these conversations is consistent with what we hear from procurement and finance teams across the buyer types we serve: dedicated, BTM generation is increasingly the path of least regret for sophisticated power consumers facing utility-side constraints. This dialogue reinforces Smartland Energy's commitment to advancing on-site generation for high-demand industries across the state. See current Ohio initiatives → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/smartland-hadron-energy-micro-modular-reactor-partnership/ TITLE: Smartland Energy Announces Strategic Partnership with Hadron Energy | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: MOU with Hadron Energy on potential portfolio-scale deployment of Halo Micro-Modular Reactors across up to five Smartland behind-the-meter projects. ============================================================================== # Smartland Energy Announces Strategic Partnership with Hadron Energy ← All NewsroomApril 29, 2026 - Matt Fritz - Newsroom Smartland Energy has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hadron Energy, Inc., establishing a portfolio-scale framework for the potential deployment of Hadron's Halo Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) across up to five qualified Smartland behind-the-meter power projects over time. The Halo MMR is a compact, modular power generation system designed to be factory-fabricated, truck-transportable, and deployable on commercially relevant timelines. For Smartland Energy, the partnership reflects a core principle of our development platform: technology flexibility. Our BTM infrastructure model is designed to integrate the most effective power generation technologies as they mature, reach commercial readiness, and align with site-specific requirements. Hadron Energy is currently advancing toward a public listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “HDRN.” The SEC declared their Form S-4 registration statement effective on April 15, 2026, and in connection with the announcement, Hadron cited the Smartland Energy MOU as part of its growing commercial pipeline. The full announcement is available on Business Wire. In addition to the MOU, Smartland made an initial strategic investment in Hadron, reflecting long-term conviction in the company's technology and go-to-market approach. This partnership expands the range of power generation pathways available across Smartland Energy's development pipeline while reinforcing our commitment to delivering reliable, on-site firm power for data centers, industrial operations, and defense installations. We'll continue sharing updates as this collaboration progresses. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/solutions/ TITLE: Behind-the-Meter Power Solutions: Gas, CHP, Solar, Storage | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Behind-the-meter power sized to your load: 10 MW RICE units with native N+2 or combined-cycle gas turbines, online ~24 months from NTP. CHP where beneficial. ============================================================================== # Power Infrastructure Solutions Two gas architectures, one behind-the-meter outcome, sized to your load, with CHP available where beneficial and solar and storage as optional layers. We deliver dedicated behind-the-meter power (decentralized generation built at the load, independent of centralized grid expansion) for the projects that cannot wait on the utility grid. Every project is sized to your actual load shape using one of two gas architectures: modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp, native N+2, and rolling maintenance, or combined-cycle gas turbines for steady high-efficiency baseload. Solar and battery storage are available as layered options behind the gas plant where they add value, not as standalone products. CHP integration is available where beneficial. Both architectures target power online in ~24 months from notice to proceed (NTP), with initial capacity targeted for Q3 2028. ## Two Architectures ### 01 Modular RICE 10 MW reciprocating engine units. Native N+2. Fast ramp. Rolling maintenance. Modern enclosed RICE plants deliver native N+2 redundancy through a set of 10 MW reciprocating gas engines instead of one or two large machines. The result is a topology that survives engine-level failure without collapsing delivery, supports rolling maintenance without taking the site offline, and replaces a failed unit faster because the unit is smaller and more interchangeable. RICE is well-suited to volatile ramp profiles (AI/HPC compute, batch industrial duty cycles) and to sites where rolling maintenance and faster mean-time-to-repair are operationally material. - N+2 achieved natively through 10 MW units - Modular capacity: add blocks as load grows - Rolling maintenance: service one engine at a time without site outage - Faster mean-time-to-repair than large frame turbines - Quieter operation than equivalent open-frame turbine plants - Fuel flexibility (natural gas with optional dual-fuel configurations) ### 02 Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine Steady high-efficiency baseload. Up to 60% thermal efficiency. Large frame. For very large, steady-state loads, combined-cycle gas turbine plants deliver high thermal efficiency through heat recovery steam generators and a steam turbine bottoming cycle. CCGT is well-suited to sites where load is steady, where total efficiency is the dominant economic lever, and where the site footprint can accommodate a frame turbine, HRSG, and steam turbine train. - Up to 60% thermal efficiency through HRSG-based heat recovery - Designed for steady, high-utilization baseload - Proven frame-turbine platforms from established OEMs - Train-level redundancy - Strategic siting near gas resources for fuel-supply efficiency Learn more about gas architectures → ## CHP Available Where Beneficial Smartland sites are engineered so combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk. CHP captures waste heat from the gas plant and converts it into usable thermal energy for adjacent loads: process steam, hot water, district heating, sterilization, drying, or campus thermal demand. We design the plant so the equipment, footprint, and integration provisions are present from day one. When your thermal-utilization economics support it, CHP is installed without re-permitting the entire site. For industrial campuses with stable thermal demand, CHP is a real economic lever. For data center campuses with adjacent industrial, agricultural, or district-heating offtakers, CHP is a path to higher total energy utilization and a sustainability case that stands up in diligence. For defense installations with billeting, hangar, and maintenance thermal loads, CHP improves energy security per dollar. ## Layered Options Behind the Gas Plant ### Solar Utility-scale solar can be layered behind the gas plant to offset daytime energy, generate Renewable Energy Certificates, and support sustainability claims attached to the offtake. Solar is sized to the site and the offtaker's daytime profile. It is not a standalone product. Learn more → ### Battery Storage Battery storage can be layered behind the gas plant for fast-response capacity smoothing, voltage and frequency support, ride-through during planned maintenance windows, and black-start support. Storage is sized to the operating profile. It is not sold as standalone utility-scale BESS. Learn more → ## Research & Development We track and evaluate emerging technologies for future deployments and for layered integration with our gas-led BTM offering: - Advanced nuclear: small and micro-modular reactors as a future generation pathway. Smartland was an early investor in Hadron Energy and is evaluating locations for up to five future Halo Micro-Modular Reactor projects, focused on retired nuclear generating sites and locations well removed from population centers. - Advanced geothermal: closed-loop and EGS systems for baseload-style firm renewables - Hybrid hydrogen production: using off-peak generation to produce hydrogen for industrial offtakers - Gravity storage: long-duration storage for specific site economics - Clean energy integration systems: orchestration across gas, solar, storage, and emerging firm sources ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/solutions/battery-power/ TITLE: Battery Storage for Behind-the-Meter Power | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Battery storage layered behind the gas plant, not sold standalone: ramp smoothing, voltage and frequency support, and ride-through. LFP chemistry, NFPA 855. ============================================================================== # Battery Storage as a Layered Option We layer battery storage behind the gas plant where it adds value to the offtake. We do not sell standalone utility-scale BESS. Battery storage is a tool, not a product line. Inside our behind-the-meter offering, storage earns its place when it improves the operating profile of the gas plant or the economics of the offtake, not as a separate sale. The sections below describe the roles where storage actually adds value, the technical considerations that determine sizing and chemistry, and the limits we are honest about. ## Roles Behind the Gas Plant ### Fast-response capacity smoothing Battery storage absorbs short-duration load swings that would otherwise force the gas plant to ramp aggressively or oversize for peaks. For AI and HPC ramp profiles in particular, storage can smooth the demand curve seen by the engines, reducing wear, improving heat rate, and keeping spinning reserve requirements modest. ### Voltage and frequency support Inverter-based storage provides fast voltage support, frequency response, and reactive power management at the POD. This is most useful where the offtaker has equipment sensitive to voltage and frequency events. ### Ride-through during planned maintenance windows During engine-level rolling maintenance, storage can carry transient demand changes so the offtaker does not see a degradation in delivered power quality. Storage does not replace generation. It bridges short windows where rolling maintenance temporarily reduces available block capacity. ### Black-start support Storage can support controlled restart sequences after major events, energizing essential controls and accessory loads while the gas plant comes up. ### Hybrid optimization Where solar is layered behind the same plant, storage can shift solar production into evening peak windows and reduce the gas plant's marginal duty cycle. ## Technical Considerations Sizing is operational, not nameplate.We size storage to the operating problem we are solving (ramp behavior, voltage support duration, ride-through window) rather than to a marketing nameplate. A 20 MW / 40 MWh system that solves the actual ramp problem is more valuable than a 50 MW / 200 MWh system that doesn't fit the duty cycle. Chemistry is selected against use case. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is the standard choice for most behind-the-meter applications because of its safety profile, cycle life, and total cost. Other chemistries are considered where specific duty cycles or thermal envelopes require them. Integration is engineered with the gas plant. Inverter coordination, protection, fault-duty contribution, and battery management system integration are designed against the same MV architecture as the gas block, not bolted on later. Safety, fire suppression, and siting are designed against current NFPA 855 and UL 9540A guidance, with attention to thermal management, off-gas detection, and emergency response coordination. ## What This Is Not We do not sell standalone utility-scale battery energy storage systems for grid services, ISO market participation, or merchant arbitrage. Storage on our projects is sized and operated against the offtake. Its job is to improve the reliability and quality of delivered behind-the-meter power for the customer, not to chase ancillary services markets. That boundary also simplifies diligence: there are no merchant revenue assumptions for a lender's technical advisor to underwrite. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/solutions/gas-power/ TITLE: Gas Power Architectures - Modular RICE or Combined-Cycle | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Behind-the-meter gas power sized to your load: modular 10 MW RICE units with native N+2, or combined-cycle gas turbines at roughly 60% thermal efficiency. ============================================================================== # Gas Power Architectures Two architectures, sized to your load and your duty cycle. Modular 10 MW RICE units for fast ramp and rolling maintenance, or combined-cycle gas turbines for steady high-efficiency baseload. Both can integrate CHP where beneficial. Gas-fired generation is how decentralized BTM power reaches the scale modern data centers, industrial campuses, and defense installations require, generation built at the load, independent of centralized grid expansion. We design and develop two gas architectures depending on load shape, ramp behavior, and site economics, and we propose the architecture that fits your operating profile, rather than forcing one technology onto every site. ## 01 Modular RICE ### 10 MW reciprocating engine units. Native N+2. Fast ramp. Rolling maintenance. Modern enclosed RICE plants are built as a set of 10 MW reciprocating gas engines. The architecture is modular at the engine level, which changes the operating math in ways that matter to operators and to the lender's technical advisor: Native N+2 redundancy. A site that needs firm 100 MW is built with twelve to fourteen 10 MW engines. Two engines can be out of service and the contracted delivery is still met under defined operating conditions. There is no single-machine concentration risk, and no failure of one large unit drops half the plant. Faster mean-time-to-repair. A 10 MW engine is smaller, more standardized, and more interchangeable than a frame turbine. Spares are easier to stock, vendor service response is faster, and a swap takes hours-to-days rather than weeks-to-months. Rolling maintenance. Each engine is serviced individually while the rest of the block continues to deliver firm power. Major overhauls become operating events, not site outages. Fast start and ramp. RICE engines start, sync, and ramp faster than large frame turbines, which is operationally material for AI/HPC compute, batch industrial duty cycles, and any load where demand is volatile. Quieter operation. Modern enclosed RICE plants run materially quieter than equivalent open-frame turbine plants, a real factor in community acceptance, permitting timelines, and siting flexibility. Fuel flexibility. Natural gas as primary fuel, with optional dual-fuel configurations for sites that require fuel-supply contingency. ## 02 Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine ### Steady high-efficiency baseload. Up to 60% thermal efficiency. Train-level redundancy. For very large, steady-state loads, combined-cycle gas turbine plants deliver the highest thermal efficiency available from a gas-fired plant. A frame turbine produces electricity directly; a heat recovery steam generator captures the exhaust heat and produces steam; that steam runs a steam turbine for additional electricity. The bottoming cycle is what brings the plant to roughly 60% thermal efficiency. Designed for steady utilization. CCGT economics work when the load is steady and high. For volatile or low-utilization profiles, RICE is the better fit. Train-level redundancy. Multiple GT/HRSG/ST trains, balance-of-plant redundancy, and operating protocols defined to support firm delivery. OEM partnerships. We work with leading frame-turbine manufacturers (GE, Siemens, Mitsubishi) and select equipment based on load shape, fuel supply, and lifecycle economics rather than vendor preference. Strategic siting. CCGT plants are typically sited in rural areas near natural gas supply and existing pipeline capacity, where land, water, and local economic development priorities can support a plant of this scale. Larger footprint. A CCGT plant requires more land, more cooling, and more permitting scope than the equivalent RICE unit. Where the site can accommodate it and the load justifies it, the efficiency premium pays back over the life of the offtake. ## CHP Available Where Beneficial Both architectures are engineered so combined heat and power can be added without retrofit risk. RICE-based CHP captures jacket water, lube oil, and exhaust heat for thermal offtakers. CCGT-based CHP extracts steam from the bottoming cycle for industrial process heat or district heating. The integration provisions, footprint allocation, and interconnection points are designed in from day one. When your thermal-utilization economics support installing the equipment, the project does not need to be re-engineered. CHP is most economically meaningful where thermal demand is stable: industrial process heat, district heating, sterilization, drying, hangar and billeting heat at defense installations, and large campus thermal loads. ## Strategic Development We site behind-the-meter projects with attention to four interconnected factors: - Gas supply: proximity to existing pipelines and willingness of the local gas utility to support the offtake - Load proximity:distance to the offtaker's site, which affects interconnection and transmission cost - Permitting environment: air, water, noise, and community acceptance trajectory - Economic development fit: alignment with local economic development priorities, which materially affects permitting timelines and political durability Our active development map currently includes evaluations in Ohio (Muskingum River and additional sites), Minnesota (Brainerd Hydroelectric, for clean repurposing), Virginia (Tazewell County), and other locations under review. See current initiatives → ## Environmental and Community Posture Modern gas plants are quieter, lower-emission, and more efficient than the public image often suggests, and we plan permitting and community engagement on that basis rather than as a defensive afterthought. Air permitting, water use, and noise impact are addressed early in development. Modern enclosed RICE plants in particular reduce community-acceptance friction relative to legacy power infrastructure. We do not claim to exceed every applicable environmental standard at every site. We plan to meet the applicable standards reliably and to engage local stakeholders with project-specific information rather than generic talking points. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/solutions/solar-power/ TITLE: Behind-the-Meter Solar Power as a Layered Option | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Behind-the-meter solar layered behind the gas plant: offsets daytime energy, generates RECs, supports scope 2 claims. Power online about 24 months from NTP. ============================================================================== # Solar as a Layered Option We layer solar behind the gas plant where it offsets daytime energy, generates RECs, or supports the offtaker's sustainability commitments. We are not a standalone utility-scale solar developer. Solar is a layered option inside our behind-the-meter offering. It earns its place when it offsets daytime energy that would otherwise come from the gas plant, when the offtaker values the Renewable Energy Certificates it produces, or when it materially supports the sustainability claim attached to the offtake. The sections below describe the roles where solar actually adds value, and the limits we are honest about. ## Roles Behind the Gas Plant ### Daytime energy offset Behind-the-meter solar reduces the gas plant's daytime duty cycle, lowering fuel consumption during sunlit hours and improving the plant's overall heat rate by avoiding low-load operation at the engine block. ### Renewable Energy Certificate creation On-site solar generates RECs that can be retained by the offtaker for sustainability claims, retired against scope 2 emissions, or monetized through state programs (where applicable). ### Sustainability claim support For data center, industrial, and defense customers managing scope 2 reporting and stakeholder commitments, behind-the-meter solar gives the offtake a credible renewable component without depending on virtual PPAs or unbundled REC purchases. ### Hybrid optimization with storage When solar is paired with the layered battery, daytime solar production can be shifted into evening peak windows, further reducing the gas plant's duty cycle during high-load hours. ## Technical Considerations Sizing is operational, not nameplate.Solar is sized against the offtaker's daytime profile and the gas plant's operating economics, not against a marketing nameplate. A 30 MW solar field that lines up with the actual daytime load delivers more value than a 100 MW field whose output gets curtailed. Co-location is engineered, not assumed. Inverter coordination with the gas plant, protection, fault-duty contribution, and metering boundaries are designed into the project from the start. Permitting and land use are addressed early. Solar adds land area and visual footprint. Both are managed through siting, screening, and stakeholder engagement rather than treated as afterthoughts. Production analytics and monitoringare integrated with the broader site SLA reporting so production data is auditable, settled correctly, and available for the offtaker's reporting needs. ## What This Is Not We do not develop standalone utility-scale solar farms for ISO market participation or merchant offtake. Solar on our projects is sized and operated against the BTM offtake. Its job is to improve the economics of the offtaker's dedicated power, not to operate as a separate solar business. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/terms/ TITLE: Terms and Conditions | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Terms and conditions governing access to and use of smartlandenergy.com. ============================================================================== # Terms and Conditions Effective Date: 2026-05-04 Last Updated: 2026-09-29 ## 1. Acceptance of These Terms These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of smartlandenergy.com (the “Site”), which is owned and operated by Smartland Energy, LLC, an Ohio limited liability company (“Smartland Energy,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), with headquarters at 35350 Curtis Boulevard, Eastlake, Ohio 44095. By accessing or using the Site, you (“you”) agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Site. 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For accredited-investor inquiries, see the /investors/ subpath. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/texas-data-center-permit-freeze-what-it-means-for-time-to-power/ TITLE: Texas Freezes Data Center Permits: Time-to-Power Is Now Political | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Texas froze all data center environmental permits on September 21, 2026, extending an August grid pause. What the widening moratorium means for time-to-power. ============================================================================== # Texas Freezes Data Center Permits: Time-to-Power Is Now Political ← All Industry NewsSeptember 22, 2026 - Smartland Energy Research - Industry News For two years, the binding constraint on large-load power has been described in engineering terms: queue position, transformer lead time, substation capacity. On September 21, 2026, Texas made the case that the harder constraint is now political. Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to stop issuing permits to data center projects, and set no fixed end date for the freeze. ### What the September 21 directive actually does The directive instructs TCEQ to issue no permits sought by data center projects until the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) complete audits already underway, and to align its permitting decisions with those audit results, according to the governor's office and reporting from the Texas Tribune. TCEQ must file a progress and compliance report with the governor's office by October 19, 2026. Abbott framed the conditions plainly: data centers must "pay their own way," fully fund their own electric infrastructure, and disclose power use, water use, tax incentives, and ownership. The scope is what matters. This is not a siting rule or a tariff proceeding. It is an administrative stop on a category of applicant across an entire agency, issued by executive directive rather than through a rulemaking with a comment period and a known schedule. ### How Texas got here On August 3, 2026, Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to audit every data center advancing through the interconnection process before any additional projects are approved, examining power demand, generation strategy, water use, public incentives, community impact, and ownership. Projects found non-compliant are to be denied grid connection. The scale explains the intervention. ERCOT's interconnection queue has reached ~474 GW, roughly 90 percent of it data centers, and about 300 facilities of 75 MW or larger sit in the Batch Zero study process, according to Utility Dive. ERCOT is targeting a December 10, 2026 filing for the audit, and ERCOT senior vice president of regulatory policy Chad Seely has already told the commission the Batch Zero study will not be finished by its April 9, 2027 deadline. Legal analysis from Gibson Dunn puts the verification process at several months but less than nine. For a developer holding a signed lease and a delivery date, that is the whole story in one number: a study deadline that was already 2027 has moved, and the new date is not yet published. ### The detail that should change how you underwrite a site The August action paused grid connections. The September action reaches further, and this is the part worth reading closely if your plan is to bring your own generation. TCEQ authorizations swept into the freeze include air permits for backup diesel and natural gas generators, fuel storage and associated emissions, and potentially co-located power generation, along with industrial wastewater, stormwater, and surface water rights, per an analysis by Foley & Lardner. In other words, the state did not just pause the queue. It paused the permits an on-site generation project needs to get built at all. A behind-the-meter strategy does not route around a freeze that includes the air permit for the generation itself. That is an uncomfortable fact for anyone selling BTM as a universal bypass, and it is the right lesson to take from this month. The speed advantage of on-site power has never come from avoiding regulators. It comes from a shorter, more controllable critical path: fewer counterparties, a permit set the developer actually holds, and no dependency on a transmission upgrade shared with hundreds of other applicants. Dedicated behind-the-meter power can be online in ~24 months from Notice to Proceed, versus 5+ years for a large-load interconnection in a constrained market. That math holds only where the permitting path is open and the developer is far enough along it to be holding paper rather than waiting on it. ### This is not only a Texas story Texas is the most dramatic example, not an isolated one. As of May 2026, twenty-three states had approved at least one large-load tariff and another seven had filings pending, according to the Columbia Climate Law Blog. Georgia legislators have proposed barring local governments from permitting data centers into 2028. Ohio activists are pursuing a ballot measure targeting hyperscale facilities. Ohio's utility commission approved a separate rate class for data centers at 25 MW and above in 2025. The common thread is cost allocation. Every one of these actions is a state deciding who pays for the infrastructure a gigawatt-scale load requires. Projects that can demonstrate they fund their own power, draw little from the public grid, and do not push costs onto residential ratepayers are the ones that will clear these reviews. Projects that cannot will keep meeting new procedural gates. ### What a buyer should do with this Three practical adjustments follow. First, treat jurisdiction as a technical variable, not a background assumption. Two sites with identical fundamentals can differ by years based on which state they sit in and what its governor did last month. Diligence should ask what permits the project holds today, not what permits are theoretically obtainable. Second, price political durability into the schedule. A pause with no end date is not a delay you can put a number on, which makes it the hardest kind of risk to carry into a board approval. Regions with an established, boring permitting record are worth a premium right now, and the comparison between grid interconnection and behind-the-meter power should be run separately for each state under consideration rather than once in the abstract. Third, hold developers to the same disclosure standard the states are now demanding. Power source, water use, cost recovery, and community impact are becoming conditions of approval. A developer who can answer those questions with documents is a faster developer, regardless of the technology. That is the standard Smartland Energy builds to for data centers, industry, and defense: dedicated capacity with the permits, the interconnection posture, and the commercial terms assembled before the offtake is signed, not after. ERCOT's audit will finish, and Texas will resume approving projects. The durable change is what the last seven weeks demonstrated about how fast a state can move when large-load growth becomes a political liability. For buyers judged on time-to-power, the question is no longer only whether a site can be energized. It is whether the path to energization can be interrupted by a directive, and how much of that path a project already has in hand. Reserve capacity → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/texas-grants-grid-operators-authority-to-cut-data-center-power-during-crises-what-it-signals-for-the-ai-buildout/ TITLE: Texas Grants Grid Operators Authority to Curtail Data Center Power During Crises | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Texas legislation gives ERCOT explicit authority to curtail large flexible loads in scarcity events - a signal of where the policy wind is blowing. ============================================================================== # Texas Grants Grid Operators Authority to Cut Data Center Power During Crises. What It Signals for the AI Buildout ← All Industry NewsJuly 1, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News In a major regulatory shift, Texas has passed Senate Bill 6 (S.B. 6), giving its grid operator (ERCOT) the authority to disconnect large data centers and industrial loads during emergency events. The move is designed to protect system-wide reliability as data center growth accelerates across the state. ## A New Reliability Playbook for a New Era ERCOT projects 138 GW of large-load demand by 2030, up from 87 GW today - a surge largely driven by AI data centers, crypto mining operations, and high-density compute clusters. S.B. 6 introduces two demand-management tracks: - Mandatory Program: Any load ≥75 MW connecting after January 2025 must install shutoff equipment and can be disconnected during firm load-shed events. - Voluntary Program: A competitively procured service with 24-hour curtailment notices for loads willing to flex capacity on demand. The law also requires a $100,000 minimum interconnection fee and transparency around duplicative interconnection requests, aiming to clean up Texas's congested project queue by filtering out speculative “phantom loads.” “This is about making sure big users aren't drinking the milkshake of every other Texas customer,” said Travis Kavulla, VP of Regulatory Affairs at NRG. ## Why This Matters to Buyers and Operators Grid access is no longer guaranteed: The assumption that AI and compute infrastructure can scale freely on grid-only supply is being challenged by physical and policy constraints - even in ERCOT, the historically fastest U.S. interconnection environment. Reliability now requires participation: Data centers will need to offer demand flexibility or back the load with on-site generation. “Just plug it into the grid” is no longer a viable procurement strategy for loads of consequence. Policy direction is bifurcating: Buyers must track not just where megawatts are growing, but where they're allowed to operate under stress. The buyers who lock in dedicated supply ahead of mandatory disconnection rules retain operational predictability that grid-only competitors will not have. “Texas is testing the appetite of big players to contribute to grid stability. And they're putting real price signals behind it,” said Kavulla. ## Wider Implications Other markets like PJM could follow Texas's lead by conditioning interconnection on demand-response participation. ERCOT is developing a new non-firm load classification to model infrastructure more accurately and unlock underutilized transmission headroom. This shift is prompting hyperscale operators to invest in on-site backup and primary generation (including batteries, microgrids, and behind-the-meter gas plants) as grid access becomes more conditional. ## Smartland Energy's View Smartland Energy is closely monitoring ERCOT's evolving interconnection and flexibility rules, particularly in regions where we are evaluating behind-the-meter infrastructure for data-center, industrial, and defensebuyers. The S.B. 6 framework is not just reactive crisis management - it's a blueprint for how load participation in future grid design will work, and the buyers who plan for it now will not be caught short by the next regulatory cycle. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/the-power-industrys-hidden-constraint-why-workforce-shortages-are-becoming-a-grid-risk/ TITLE: The Power Industry's Hidden Constraint: Why Workforce Shortages Are Becoming a Grid Risk | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Skilled-trade and engineering shortages are now a project-schedule constraint as material as steel, copper, or transformers. ============================================================================== # The Power Industry's Hidden Constraint: Why Workforce Shortages Are Becoming a Grid Risk ← All Industry NewsJanuary 7, 2026 - Victor F. - Industry News As electricity demand rises across the U.S., driven by data centers, electrification, and industrial growth, the power sector is facing a constraint that receives far less attention than fuel or transmission: a shortage of skilled workers. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, nearly 90% of employers in transmission, distribution, and storage report difficulty hiring qualified labor. The International Energy Agency warns these gaps are now large enough to delay projects and raise system costs. Goldman Sachs estimates the industry may need more than 750,000 new workers by 2030, just to meet demand and replace retirees. The shortage is most acute in applied technical roles like electricians, line workers, plant operators, and engineers - positions essential to grid reliability. While automation and AI tools are helping utilities operate more efficiently, deploying those technologies requires specialized skills that are also in short supply. As a result, workforce readiness is increasingly shaping how quickly and where new energy infrastructure can be built. In today's market, labor availability is no longer just an HR concern - it's a critical factor in energy planning, project execution, and long-term grid resilience. ### What This Means for BTM Buyers For buyers evaluating speed-to-power, workforce constraints reinforce the same conclusion as the transformer-supply story: the developers who deliver on schedule are the ones who lock in spares strategy, vendor service response, and operating talent early. Smartland Energy plans operating model and staffing expectations alongside the engineering and the offtake terms, not after, and modular RICE topology in particular is well-suited to a constrained service-labor market because individual engines are smaller, more standardized, and faster to swap than large frame turbines. See how we structure operations → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/transformer-supply-in-2026-a-constraint-thats-reshaping-grid-development/ TITLE: Transformer Supply in 2026: A Constraint That's Reshaping Grid Development | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Lead times of 80–120+ weeks for large power transformers are reshaping how, and where, buyers can get firm megawatts. ============================================================================== # Transformer Supply in 2026: A Constraint That's Reshaping Grid Development ← All Industry NewsJanuary 7, 2026 - Victor F. - Industry News As electricity demand accelerates across the U.S., transformers have emerged as one of the most closely watched constraints in grid development. New analysis suggests the issue may be less about a single equipment shortfall and more about how the power industry plans, procures, and sequences infrastructure. According to Wood Mackenzie, U.S. power transformer demand has increased more than 100% since 2019, driven by data centers, electrification, renewable integration, and the replacement of aging grid assets. More than half of U.S. distribution transformers are already beyond their expected service life, creating steady replacement pressure on top of new construction. Manufacturers have announced nearly $2 billion in new North American capacity, but lead times for large power transformers remain elevated, often exceeding two years. Costs have also risen sharply, with power transformer prices up more than 70% since 2019. Some market participants argue the shortage narrative may be overstated. They point to alternative sourcing pathways and procurement practices that can reduce timelines if utilities and developers are willing to move earlier and broaden supplier engagement. This tension suggests that transformer availability is not only a manufacturing issue, but a planning and coordination challenge. What is clear is that transformers are not an isolated bottleneck. Switchgear, breakers, and other transmission and distribution equipment are experiencing similar pressure as multiple sectors compete for the same factory capacity. ### What This Means for BTM Buyers For buyers underwriting new compute, industrial, or defense load on a defined go-live timeline, transformer constraints amplify the case for behind-the-meter strategy. Utility interconnection that depends on multi-year transformer procurement is one more reason the queue does not move. Developers like Smartland Energy that engage early on long-lead equipment, secure capacity in modular blocks, and structure offtakes around equipment-availability reality are positioned to deliver on schedule. Reserve capacity → As grid expansion, data center development, and electrification continue, access to critical equipment, and the ability to secure it early, is becoming a defining factor in which projects move forward and which remain delayed. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/tucson-electric-power-embraces-flexible-engine-based-generation-for-a-cleaner-future/ TITLE: Tucson Electric Power Embraces Flexible, Engine-Based Generation for a Cleaner Future | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: TEP's flexible-engine deployment validates the modular RICE thesis: dispatchable, fast-start gas as the backbone for grids absorbing AI and renewables. ============================================================================== # Tucson Electric Power Embraces Flexible, Engine-Based Generation for a Cleaner Future ← All Industry NewsJune 3, 2025 - vadim.k - Industry News Tucson Electric Power (TEP) is charting a course toward a carbon-free energy portfolio by 2050, with a full exit from coal planned by 2032. As part of its transitional strategy, TEP is leaning into small, flexible engine-based generation to support grid reliability and complement its growing renewable energy portfolio. In 2020, TEP commissioned a new power station featuring ten high-efficiency, gas-fueled engines on a legacy site previously home to mid-20th-century coal and gas turbines. Now part of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) energy imbalance market, the new facility has become so responsive that CAISO operators have had to limit how often they dispatch it - risking the exhaustion of its air permit's allowable starts before midday. These engines are strategically deployed during morning and evening ramp periods, as well as overnight, allowing TEP's solar assets to dominate during daylight hours. According to plant operators, the flexibility of these engines is so valuable that they'd gladly add ten more if given the chance - especially as coal plants retire and grid stability becomes increasingly dependent on nimble, dispatchable resources. ### Why Modular Engine-Based Generation Matters for BTM Buyers The TEP case study validates the same architectural thesis that runs through Smartland Energy's modular RICE approach for behind-the-meter buyers: - Engine-level modularity outperforms single-machine concentration when the load is variable, the dispatch is volatile, or the operating environment requires fast ramping. TEP's operators want more engines, not fewer larger units. - The same topology that works for a regulated utility transitioning off coal works for a BTM buyer that needs N+2, rolling maintenance, and fast start. Smartland delivers the same architecture sized to your load - twelve to fourteen 10 MW engines for a 100 MW BTM site, scaling in 10 MW units as the load grows. - Future-fuel optionality is built in, not bolted on later. ### Toward Net Zero with Clean Fuels TEP's engine-based strategy is not just a stopgap. These modern thermal units are poised to transition to clean fuels like green hydrogen as the technology matures and supply chains develop. Today's engines can already blend up to 25% hydrogen by volume, and manufacturers are on track to deliver 100% hydrogen-capable engines by 2026. This evolution positions both regulated utilities and BTM buyers to make near-term investments in dispatchable resources that can adapt to a lower-carbon future without forcing a fuel commitment that may be uneconomic for years. As the energy sector shifts away from the “bigger is better” model, modular engine-based generation offers a compelling architecture for both utility and BTM applications. By investing in engine-based plants alongside renewables and storage, whether on the regulated grid or behind the meter, operators can follow a low-risk, future-ready path toward reliable, dispatchable power without compromising on schedule, ramp, or maintainability. See how Smartland delivers modular RICE for data centers, industrial, and defense buyers → Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/u-s-hydrogen-ambitions-face-harsh-market-reality/ TITLE: U.S. Hydrogen Ambitions Face Harsh Market Reality | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Hydrogen project economics are stretching as offtake commitments lag and equipment costs rise. ============================================================================== # U.S. Hydrogen Ambitions Face Harsh Market Reality ← All Industry NewsAugust 13, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News The once-booming promise of green hydrogen - a clean-burning fuel touted as a game-changer for energy and climate goals - is hitting a wall in the United States. Recent policy changes have shortened the timeline for qualifying for federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, requiring projects to begin construction by the end of 2027. Industry analysts at Wood Mackenzie estimate that as many as three-quarters of proposed projects will now miss the deadline, forcing cancellations from Arizona to Oklahoma. ### Why Hydrogen Is Stalling Hydrogen offers the appeal of zero carbon emissions at point of use, but production is costly, energy-intensive, and infrastructure-heavy. Most U.S. hydrogen today is produced from natural gas, emitting CO₂ in the process. Clean hydrogen, made via electrolysis powered by renewables, faces two major headwinds: - Rising electricity demand from EVs, heat pumps, and AI data centers, creating competition for clean power. - Slowing renewable buildout in the U.S., making green hydrogen projects harder to finance and operate. “It's tough times,” said Bernd Heid, senior partner at McKinsey & Co., who predicted a “flattish” U.S. hydrogen market for years. ### The Shift Toward Natural Gas–Based Hydrogen With policy and cost challenges mounting, attention is turning toward blue hydrogen - produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS). This pathway benefits from different tax credits and longer construction timelines, as well as abundant U.S. gas supply and geological storage capacity. Industry players like ExxonMobil are weighing multibillion-dollar investments in low-emission hydrogen plants, but remain cautious. “If we can't see an eventual path to a market-driven business, we won't move forward,” said CEO Darren Woods. ### What This Means for BTM Buyers For data-center, industrial, and defense buyers evaluating long-term energy strategy, the hydrogen story matters in two ways: - Don't underwrite hydrogen as a near-term option. Green hydrogen scaling is now a region-specific, incremental story rather than a nationwide rollout - most BTM offtakes signed in the next 24-36 months will not have meaningful hydrogen substitution available. - Plan around the gas-led path with optionality preserved. Behind-the-meter natural gas, particularly modular RICE topology, keeps the door open to layered hydrogen blending or future CCS retrofit when economics align. (That's the architecture Smartland Energy delivers - see Solutions / Gas Power for how we structure the gas plant for future-add optionality.) Hydrogen's future in the U.S. is not dead, but its growth curve is bending toward incremental, region-specific projects rather than rapid, nationwide deployment. Buyers who plan their power procurement around that reality will not be caught short. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/upper-sandusky-community-information-session/ TITLE: What We Heard at Our Upper Sandusky Community Information Session | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Residents came to meet our team, ask hard questions and tell us what matters to them. Here is what we shared, what we stand behind, and how the conversation continues. ============================================================================== # What We Heard at Our Upper Sandusky Community Information Session ← All NewsroomOctober 7, 2026 - Smartland Energy - Newsroom Newsroom · Upper Sandusky Residents came to meet our team, ask hard questions and tell us what matters to them. Here is what we shared, what we stand behind, and how the conversation continues. Smartland Energy · Community Information Session held Thursday, September 10, 2026 On Thursday, September 10, Smartland Energy hosted a Community Information Session in Upper Sandusky on the proposed Midway Energy & Technology District. Many residents came with real worries about their homes, their families and the town they love. Others came with hope for new jobs and investment. We are grateful to everyone who gave up their evening to be there, and to everyone who watched online as well. ## Time with our subject matter experts For the hour before the presentation, our subject matter experts in engineering, finance, legal and workforce hosted information stations around the hall. Each table had printed flyers, explainer videos playing on a screen and trifold boards. Residents moved from station to station at their own pace, watching the videos, reading the materials and talking directly with the people behind each part of the project. ## The presentation and open Q&A Our CEO, Vadim Kleyner, then walked through the proposal and opened the floor. Residents asked about water, noise, air quality, property values and what happens if things don't go as planned. Some shared what living near the site would mean for their own families. Those are personal concerns, and we heard every one of them. ## What we shared - WaterA closed-loop, air-cooled design developed with Commonwealth Associates. The same coolant circulates in a sealed circuit and sheds heat into the air through radiators. A limited adiabatic assist, which uses a small amount of water to pre-cool the air, is reserved for the hottest days. That keeps water use to a fraction of what conventional evaporative cooling towers consume. - SoundSilencers on exhaust stacks, fans slowed at night, equipment positioned and screened away from homes, and an independent review of all sound data. If modeling shows the site would exceed the City's limits, we redesign it. - Air qualityNatural gas fuel, emissions controls that convert nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water, and emission limits set through Ohio EPA permitting. - PowerThe plant would produce its own electricity on site and would not draw from the existing grid. - Tax revenueThe project would bring significant new local tax revenue, with the largest share going to Upper Sandusky Exempted Village Schools. We are not seeking a tax abatement. - Proactive investmentsWe also proposed helping expand the City's water treatment plant, a property value protection agreement for nearby homeowners, and a Generations Fund: an independently managed community fund that would invest in Upper Sandusky's families and its future. ## Responsible regulation, not a ban We said plainly that evening that Upper Sandusky should set firm, enforceable rules for any project like this one, and Smartland should have to meet every one of them. We stood (and will continue to stand) behind limits on noise and water use, and a requirement that power be produced on site rather than drawn from the grid. At the time of the session, we had not seen any draft regulations from the City. But we were already calling for responsible regulation, because it is how a community protects itself and holds a developer to its word. “The teeth belong in the permits and ordinances. Smartland is a willing partner to ensure they are enforceable.”Terrence O'Donnell, energy counsel to Smartland Energy Rules can be written for Upper Sandusky, debated in public hearings and strengthened over time. A permanent ban written into the City Charter cannot. A ban also opens the door for a city to rule out anything, at any time, and shut out whatever good a project could bring before anyone has weighed it. Regulation does the harder, fairer work: it scrutinizes each proposal and holds it to rules that make sure the benefits clearly outweigh the risks. Residents will decide on the proposed charter amendment on November 3. About the charter amendment →Midway project page and FAQ → Watch the full sessionMissed the evening, or want to hear an answer again? The full livestream is on YouTube. You're invited ## Community Conversation When Thursday, October 15 3:30 to 7:30 PM Where Board Room, Upper Sandusky Community Library 301 N. Sandusky Ave., Upper Sandusky, OH 43351 We're making time for more conversation.Following our Community Information Session, we know there is more to discuss about the proposed Midway Energy & Technology District. Our team will be available from 3:30 to 7:30 PM to answer questions, hear concerns and have open conversations about the proposed project. Everyone is welcome. Stop by anytime. Informational materials and videos will also be available throughout the event so you can explore the information at your own pace. Representing an organization or business in Wyandot County? You can reserve a dedicated 20-minute conversation with our team, with time slots beginning at 3:40 PM. Bring questions, concerns or specific topics you'd like to discuss. At least three representatives from your organization must attend. Reserve a conversationGet directions Questions? Email uppersandusky@smartland.com All project information is preliminary and subject to further engineering, permitting, regulatory review and final project decisions. Last updated October 7, 2026 ← All Newsroom ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/virginia-data-center-power/ TITLE: Dedicated Power for Data Centers in Virginia | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Southwest Virginia sits inside the PJM footprint with gas infrastructure access and proximity to the nation's densest data-center corridors. Smartland Energy is evaluating sites in the region. ============================================================================== # Dedicated Power in Virginia The nation's densest data-center market needs power from beyond its traditional corridors. Southwest Virginia is positioned to supply it. ## Why Southwest Virginia Virginia hosts the largest concentration of data centers in the world. Its established corridors face the same constraint as every mature market: power availability on acceptable timelines. Growth is moving toward regions that can pair developable land with decentralized generation built at the load, independent of centralized grid buildout. Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia sit inside the PJM footprint, with access to natural-gas infrastructure and proximity to data-center growth corridors - the combination dedicated behind-the-meter generation needs. PJM Same wholesale market footprint as the established Virginia corridors Gas Access Natural-gas infrastructure within reach of developable land ## Smartland's Virginia Activity ### Regional Site Evaluation Active evaluation of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia opportunities as part of the development pipeline. Read the update → ### Pure Salmon Precedent Southwest Virginia already hosts large, power-intensive projects - including the Pure Salmon aquaculture facility our team has covered. Read the analysis → ### Capacity for 2028 Initial capacity is targeted to come online in Q3 2028, reserved in sequence at a defined Point of Delivery. How reservation works → ## Built for Large Loads The platform delivers dedicated BTM capacity in ~24 months from notice to proceed: 100-300 MW air-cooled deployments, and up to 400 MW for liquid-cooled, high-density AI infrastructure. The architecture is N+2: modular 10 MW RICE generation, A/B power at the POD, and a contract-backed SLA written for procurement, lender, and investor diligence. See the full platform specification → ## Also Evaluating Virginia is one node in an active multi-state pipeline: eastern Ohio pairs gas pipeline access with industrial-zoned land and energy-community eligibility, evaluation is underway in Minnesota, and additional sites are tracked in the current initiatives. ============================================================================== URL: https://smartlandenergy.com/why-ais-next-scaling-problem-is-measured-in-megawatts/ TITLE: Why AI's Next Scaling Problem Is Measured in Megawatts | Smartland Energy SUMMARY: Compute is scaling faster than power. The next constraint on AI is megawatts on a defined timeline. ============================================================================== # Why AI's Next Scaling Problem Is Measured in Megawatts ← All Industry NewsJune 27, 2025 - Victor F. - Industry News As turbine backlogs stretch into the next decade, the grid (and the AI industry) are entering a new era of scarcity. The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) recently flagged a critical inflection point in U.S. energy strategy: gas turbines, once a go-to solution for peaker power and grid reliability, are now backordered well past 2028. With OEM order books full and spare parts thinning out, utilities can no longer assume they can “just add gas” to meet rising summer peaks or AI-driven demand surges. This bottleneck is a flashing red signal for the AI economy. Data center growth is accelerating, but the dependable power needed to scale that compute is no longer a given. ## The Real Constraint on AI Isn't Compute - It's Capacity For years, hyperscalers and infrastructure planners alike assumed that gas peakers would serve as a flexible backbone behind solar, wind, and intermittent renewables. That model just failed a real-world stress test. Like GPUs, turbines are now in short supply, locked up by a few vendors with long lead times and complex IP. In both cases, physical constraints, not software, are setting the pace. ## What Comes Next: Where Buyers Should Look With new gas units delayed, RMI points to faster-deploying solutions: - Modular batteries - Demand-side flexibility - Targeted efficiency - Selective transmission upgrades - Modular RICE-based BTM generation (smaller, more standardized engines have shorter lead times than large frame turbines and are easier to deploy in 12–24 months) These pathways won't just support the grid - they'll define how buyers structure power procurement for the next decade. For sophisticated power buyers, the procurement signal is direct: the ability to lock in dedicated, deliverable megawatts ahead of grid build-out is becoming the moat. ## Smartland Energy's View This turbine crunch makes one thing clear: AI infrastructure isn't just software - it's steel, substations, and sovereign megawatts. Smartland Energy continues to monitor where next-gen compute and resilient power converge, especially in grid-challenged and high-growth regions. Our modular RICE topology is particularly well-suited to a market where large-frame turbine lead times stretch past 2028. If you're watching AI, you should be watching power procurement even closer. Last updated May 4, 2026 ← All Industry News