Blackstone Acquires Potomac Energy Center

As part of its strategy to enhance infrastructure for data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, world’s largest alternative asset manager Blackstone announced that Blackstone Energy Transition Partners have agreed to acquire Potomac Energy Center, a 774 MW natural gas power plant in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Blackstone Energy Transition Partners is Blackstone’s energy-focused private equity business, a leading energy investor with a successful long-term record, having invested approximately $23 billion of equity globally across a broad range of sectors within the energy industry.

The transaction, whose terms of the transaction were not disclosed, represents Blackstone’s most recent investment in the power infrastructure, one of the firm’s highest-conviction areas. The Northern Virginia region currently represents approximately 25% of U.S. data center capacity, and the Potomac plant is located in close proximity to over 130 data centers – with significant further growth expected.

Bilal Khan, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, said that the company’s latest investment underscores Blackstone’s commitment to investing in the electric infrastructure required to power AI innovation.

“We believe Potomac is well-positioned to help meet data center-driven power demand growth in Northern Virginia,” he said.

Mark Zhu, Managing Director at Blackstone Energy Transition Partners, also said that they were particularly excited about this investment given the opportunity to supply reliable, baseload power to the region.

Potomac is one of the most efficient gas power plants in the region and has the potential to integrate a hydrogen fuel blend in the future, which could provide future environmental benefits, Zhu added.

 Lee Davis, CEO of Creto Energy, Blackstone Energy Transition Partners’ North America power platform, said that Potomac has a reputation and history for providing reliable and high-quality generation capacity, which are critical to helping support the region’s growing power needs.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is the largest data center provider in the world with major investments in both Northern Virginia and globally. The firm also recently made major investments in CoreWeave, a specialised provider of critical cloud infrastructure pioneering the AI revolution, and DDN, a global leader in AI and data intelligence solutions.

Blackstone seeks to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which it invests. The company has more than $1.1 trillion in assets under management include global investment strategies focused on real estate, private equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, credit, real assets, secondaries, and hedge funds.