NRG Energy expects to announce a data center agreement in 2026 associated with new natural gas development in its partnership with GE Vernova and Kiewit, the company’s CEO, Lawrence Coben, said in a Nov. 6 earnings call.

The first step of that joint venture is to start work on four gas projects totaling around 5.4 GW for the ERCOT and PJM markets. During the call, Coben said a data center agreement is set to be announced sometime next year, but he declined to pin down an exact month or quarter for the announcement.

“As far as [GE Vernova] goes, in this Kiewit partnership, did you have a certain time frame that you need to move some of this equipment — use it or lose it, if you will?” asked Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith. 

Coben said the company hasn’t disclosed a time frame yet, but added, “I'm very confident that we're going to meet all of the timelines that are required under that agreement.”

NRG, GE Vernova and Kiewit plan to have 1.2 GW of combined-cycle gas turbines in service by 2029, another 1.2 GW in service by 2030, and an additional 3 GW brought online from 2030 to 2032. Development activities are in progress across all sites, the company said.

NRG is also anticipating the closure of its deal to acquire 19 GW of assets from LS Power in the first quarter next year for roughly $12 billion. The assets include a demand-response company and around 12.9 GW of gas-fired power plant capacity. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the plan on Friday.

On the call, NRG also provided updates on resources it is developing in Texas. In September, NRG “entered into a $562 million loan agreement with the Public Utility Commission of Texas ... for a low-interest rate loan at 3%” to support development of the 689-MW Cedar Bayou generation facility, the company said.

In response to an analyst question about NRG’s priorities within PJM, as opposed to ERCOT, Coben said the company “will really accelerate those efforts, of course, once [the LS acquisition] closes. Because once we own the generation assets there, that will really vault us into being a significant player. But there is no grass growing under our feet there in the meantime.”

Across PJM and ERCOT, NRG has expanded its data center customer portfolio with “150 MW of new premium long-term power agreements, bringing total contracted capacity to 445 MW,” Coben said.

Coben noted that total electricity consumption in Texas has increased “nearly 30% over the past five years, driven by residential, commercial and industrial demand, as electrification and onshoring of manufacturing accelerate. Data center development usage remains early, with ramp schedules expected to add meaningful capacity over the next several years.”

The peak load outlook for ERCOT is anticipated to exceed current total capacity by 2028 and continue rising, according to a graph in NRG’s earnings presentation, with a 28 GW gap between current capacity and peak load projected for 2030.