Just weeks after a developer asked state energy regulators to let it build its own temporary natural gas plant to power Northern Nevada data centers, another developer is asking regulators to approve an even larger, permanent gas plant to power additional data centers.

Nexus Fulcrum LLC is asking state energy regulators to allow it to construct a 510 megawatt (MW) natural gas plant at the former Sierra Biofuels Refinery at the edge of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC), a swelling hub of industry and data centers.

Unlike front-of-the-meter power that is generated or purchased by public utilities and transmitted on public transmission systems, behind-the-meter power does not rely on public utility infrastructure and therefore has less oversight by state energy regulators. 

"The proposed electrical generation facility is needed to support expanded development, including data centers, within the TRIC," reads the application submitted June 17 to the state's Public Utilities Commission.

Minimal information exists online about Nexus Fulcrum LLC, a foreign limited-liability company out of Delaware that filed in April with Nevada's Secretary of State Office. 

However, data center developer Nexus says on its website that it focuses on "purpose-built, large-scale campuses powered behind the meter."

And the applicant is seeking to build the plant on the former Sierra BioFuels Plant, shuttered by Fulcrum BioEnergy in spring of 2024 after less than two years of operations.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy later that year. Switch Ltd., a large-scale data center operator with a campus at TRIC, acquired the biorefinery.

Neither Las Vegas-based attorney Linda Bullen, who represents Nexus Fulcrum LLC and chairs the State Bar of Nevada's environmental and natural resources law section, nor Megan Peterson, senior environmental manager at the consulting firm Kimley-Horn that is involved in the application, returned a phone call from The Nevada Independent before publication. 

The application is the second in less than two months from companies seeking to build behind-the-meter power for Northern Nevada data centers.

In April, Fleet Data Centers asked state energy regulators to approve more than 350 MW of natural gas and diesel behind-the-meter power for data centers at TRIC because data center growth at the industrial complex is outpacing the ability of NV Energy to provide enough power.

NV Energy has estimated it needs 47 percent more energy statewide than it forecast just two years ago to meet the growing needs of data centers and other large-scale customers. 

Over the next 20 years, NV Energy expects to build out 1,200 MW of natural gas power based on current customer requests. The natural gas plants requested by Fleet Data Centers and Nexus Fulcrum LLC would, over just a couple of years, generate about three-quarters the amount of natural gas power the utility would develop over 20 years.

In 2001, the state passed its so-called 704B law allowing businesses with large electric loads such as mines and casinos to leave NV Energy and purchase power from other providers. However, those businesses still rely on the utility's infrastructure for transmission and are required to comply with the state's renewable portfolio standard — that is, how much power utilities pull from renewable sources.

Behind-the-meter customers do not have to hit state renewable targets. And, because the power doesn't run through the state's publicly traded utilities or use their transmission equipment, state energy regulators have a smaller role in its oversight.

If approved, the Nexus Fulcrum project will include nine gas turbines, each capable of producing between 56 and 57 MW of power.

Because the project is on private land, federal environmental review isn't needed. But it still requires state permits and approvals, including an air quality operating permit for construction from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP).

The project will produce more than 100 tons per year of both nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, according to the application, which is still being reviewed by NDEP.

Construction would start in early 2027 and wrap up in late 2029, according to the application.