Our Austin-based Texas energy regulatory team serves clients on several large load projects such as data centers and hyper-scale computing facilities. We have provided or are currently providing expert Texas electricity regulatory advice to:
- a large competitive generation company to support development of, and behind-the-meter electricity service to, a very large electricity-consuming facility co-located on a power plant site;
- investors in the development of a large electricity-consuming facility co-located on a power plant site;
- a large competitive generation company to support providing behind-the-meter electricity service to a new crypto-mining facility;
- property owners engaged in land sales or leases and other agreements to facilitate development of co-located power generation and large electricity-consuming facilities; and
- a data center project providing its own on-site generation resource.
Our Texas electricity regulatory attorneys successfully support these types projects because we thoroughly understand the law as it applies to each type of local utility (investor-owned, municipal, and co-operative) and we know what types of arrangements may be used to lawfully provide behind-the-meter service to a large load facility in each of those types of utility’s service areas. We are familiar with the agreements that document these types of projects and support the regulatory components of developing those agreements or conducting diligence for investors.
Our Texas regulatory lawyers have, among them, over 100 years of experience working in the electricity regulatory arena. These lawyers have substantial experience as general counsels of major utilities, competitive generators and retailers, and competitive telecommunications providers in Texas. Our lawyers have also worked at high levels inside Texas regulatory bodies and state government. Thus, we have deep understanding of how the regulatory environment affects both private and public actors.
Our attorneys provide creative and workable solutions to enable such service and to support the demand for fast development of these large-load projects.
In addition to knowing the law, our attorneys have deep and broad professional relationships in the power industry, within competitive and regulated companies, the Public Utility Commission, and at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
We understand the ERCOT large-load interconnection process and work collaboratively with technical experts to drive projects forward.
We engage quickly and work efficiently to facilitate our clients’ objectives in an ever-changing regulatory environment. For more information on how Butler Snow supports clients throughout the energy industry, visit our Energy Industry Team.
Practice Highlights from Other States
Louisiana:
- Represented the State of Louisiana (Louisiana Economic Development or LED) in negotiating and drafting agreements critical to landing the Meta Artificial Intelligence Data Center Project, including agreements providing for multiple economic development incentives and the long-term lease of a 1,400 acre mega-site owned by the State of Louisiana. Additionally, we worked with local governments and Meta on a land-use agreement to provide long term certainty critical for the project. Ultimately, this project represents the largest economic development project in Louisiana history and will result in $10 billion dollars of capital investment and 500 high paying jobs.
- The project was recognized by Business Facilities Magazine as its Platinum 2024 Deal of the Year.
Mississippi:
- Represented Amazon Web Services in drafting special legislation before the Mississippi Legislature, while also negotiating and drafting the master contractual agreement with the State of Mississippi to incentivize AWS to invest at least $10b in Mississippi through the development of data centers in the state while also creating a minimum of 1,000 jobs. Additionally, we represented AWS in negotiating the local tax incentives related to the initial project and are continuing that representation regarding any expansions of the project within the state. This project is currently the largest economic development project in Mississippi history in terms of investment.
- Our representation of AWS also includes ongoing real estate work in support of this project.
Tennessee:
- Representation of an economic development agency in permitting, land-use, tax and utility matters for the development of a $12 billion data center.
- Representation of a solar developer in land-use, development, tax and regulatory matters for a utility-scale solar development to support a large data center, including behind-the-meter issues.
