ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC said that it has finalized arrangements to purchase all of the economic interests in Middletown Energy Center (“Middletown”), a 484 MW natural gas-fired power production plant in Butler County, Ohio, which is in the top quartile and extremely efficient. Through a number of deals, ArcLight is purchasing Middletown from a group of vendors.
Since the company’s founding in 2001, ArcLight has made investments in the electricity infrastructure sector, and this acquisition represents its most recent investment in that area. Since then, ArcLight has invested in more than 50 power infrastructure projects, giving it one of the longest and most comprehensive track records in North America’s power infrastructure industry.
With access to an advantageous gas supply, Middletown is one of PJM’s newest natural gas combined cycle power plants, having started operations in 2018. Middletown supplies the PJM market, the biggest wholesale energy market in the United States, with dispatchable and dependable power. The asset has a solid operational history and is situated in a location with significant demand tailwinds from data center-related power consumption and artificial intelligence.
“With increasing demand for digital infrastructure, Ohio has emerged as a premier hub for data centers and Middletown Energy Center, with ArcLight’s stewardship, stands ready to meet the substantial electric infrastructure needs of this vital sector,” stated Angelo Acconcia, Partner at ArcLight. “This acquisition is the latest example of ArcLight’s value-add electric infrastructure investing strategy which includes power, renewables, battery storage, transmission, natural gas transmission and storage, and digital power.”
“We expect Middletown to play an increasingly critical role in providing reliable and affordable power to a market that is experiencing a rapid expansion of data center-driven demand growth,” stated Andrew Brannan, Managing Director at ArcLight. “Reliable and efficient power generation is essential to ensuring continued industrial and data-center related investment in the region, and highly efficient resources such as Middletown are vital to these initiatives.”
With an enterprise value of more than $80 billion, ArcLight has owned, controlled, or operated more than 65 GW of assets and 47,000 miles of gas and electric transmission infrastructure since 2001. ArcLight thinks it is in a strong position to provide the cutting-edge and specialized electric infrastructure solutions needed by AI and data center power demand because of its extensive industry expertise and internal operational and technical capabilities. ArcLight now oversees North America’s biggest portfolio of private electricity infrastructure.
The private transaction’s financial details were not made public. With regulatory clearances, the deal is anticipated to completion in 2025. ArcLight is being represented by Latham & Watkins LLP.
