Fervo (FRVO), Hyliion (HYLN): Data Centers Buy Their Own Power

Between 11 and 19 August 2026, Energy Vault (NRGV), Fervo Energy (FRVO), Hyliion (HYLN) and APA Group (APAJF) each held quarterly or full-year earnings calls, and all four described the same shift: data centers buy their own power now, with each supplier delivering only one slice of the campus requirement [1][2][3][4].

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Why interconnection stopped being an option

An AI compute campus draws several hundred megawatts at once. The owner used to apply to the local utility for a grid connection, and the grid delivered the power and also covered the gap whenever a unit tripped or load swung. The owner bought one bundled product. Both ends of that path are now blocked. Waiting in the queue for new transmission takes years, and policy has tightened on top of it: in early August, Texas ordered ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission to audit every data center project in the interconnection process and allowed them to deny connection, and New York imposed a one-year moratorium on new data center construction from July [5][6].

Energy Vault said the opportunity has moved to smaller points of interconnection of 50 to 100 MW rather than 800 MW to multi-gigawatt, because building in stages lands more lightly on the surrounding community [1]. Once the owner builds generation on site, two things the grid used to absorb move with it: the extra capacity built to hold reliability, and the ability to follow instantaneous swings in load. Those two get priced apart, and the order splits with them.

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The supplier signs for one tranche; the rest is specified by response speed

Fervo Energy develops enhanced geothermal generation. On its 12 August call, the CFO set out how the contracts it is pursuing divide the work: Fervo delivers firm geothermal power and its associated reliability into the customer's private-use network, and the customer procures the additional generation and storage needed to reach its own reliability target [2]. Under that split, Fervo's cost structure for its own portion stays broadly consistent with its earlier front-of-meter contracts, and the company raised its end-2030 installed-capacity expectation from 1.0 GW to 1.1 GW on that basis [2].

The unbundling is more concrete on the equipment side. Hyliion said the same day that it sees three buckets of data center projects — low tens of megawatts, around 100 MW, and gigawatt scale — and that at gigawatt scale a combined-cycle gas turbine takes baseload while Hyliion is being considered for 10% to 20% of overall need, specifically to handle transient loads [3]. Six days earlier, engine maker Power Solutions International described the same change independently: data centers historically ran on the utility grid with diesel gensets on standby, and the trend now is gas gensets for prime power, diesel demoted to standby, and batteries handling instantaneous response [7].

Australia has written the arrangement into its conditions. APA Group said on 19 August that the federal government and the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) require hyperscale data centers to bring their own power, led by renewables, firmed with batteries and gas-fired generation, and able to feed power back to support the grid when the grid needs it [4].

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The buyer changes, and order intake shows it first

With the bundled connection taken apart, the party signing the contract shifts from utilities and independent power producers to the campus owner. Engines, gas turbines, batteries, switchgear and EPC scope each become a separate line to procure, and vendors have to work out who their customer now is. Reliability also moves from a service that arrived with the power to a specification that can be quoted on its own: Energy Vault said the increase in its owned-battery bucket is sold alongside gas generation and bought for always-on availability [1].

The reading has limits. Fervo itself said 100% of its geoclusters are still built with a long-term plan of grid interconnection, that behind-the-meter is a bridge for when transmission timelines lag, and that as of 12 August it had not signed a behind-the-meter PPA [2]. Talen Energy's CEO does not accept behind-the-meter as a long-term answer [8]. The campus is not getting smaller; the individual contract is. What to watch next is order backlog and contracted megawatts at the equipment vendors and EPCs, and whether Fervo signs its first behind-the-meter PPA before year end [2].

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Companies this change could affect:

• Generac (GNRC): It makes the factory-packaged large-megawatt gensets a campus owner orders once it is buying its own equipment; the company disclosed over $100 million of data center revenue in Q2 and a $1.6 billion backlog, of which $1 billion was booked in the prior 90 days [9].
• Stabilis Solutions (SLNG): It sells LNG-fuelled bridge power and frames data center power as four distinct project types — construction, commissioning, bridge power and long-term backup — which is the same tranche-by-tranche split described above [10].
• American Superconductor (AMSC): It makes voltage-support hardware, the kind a campus needs once it is required to feed support back into the grid; the company said recent orders come directly from data centers rather than from utilities [11].

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Sources

[1] Drillr · Energy Vault (NRGV) · 2026-08-11 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[2] Drillr · Fervo Energy (FRVO) · 2026-08-12 · Q2 2026 earnings call

"In the structures we're pursuing, FERBO is responsible for delivering firm geothermal power and its associated reliability to the customer's private use network, while the customer is responsible for procuring the additional generation and storage capacity required to reach their desired overall reliability level."

[3] Drillr · Hyliion (HYLN) · 2026-08-12 · FY2026 Q2 earnings call

[4] Drillr · APA Group (APAJF) · 2026-08-19 · FY26 full-year earnings call

[5] KTRH · Texas governor orders ERCOT and the PUC to audit data center interconnection applications · 2026-08-01 · news report · https://ktrh.iheart.com/featured/houston-texas-news/content/2026-08-03-gov-abbott-puts-temporary-stop-to-new-data-centers/

[6] Next City · New York imposes a one-year moratorium on new data center construction · 2026-07-10 · news report · https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/new-york-to-block-construction-new-data-centers-what-other-communities-know

[7] Drillr · Power Solutions International (PSIX) · 2026-08-06 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[8] Drillr · Talen Energy (TLN) · 2026-08-05 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[9] Drillr · Generac (GNRC) · 2026-07-29 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[10] Drillr · Stabilis Solutions (SLNG) · 2026-08-12 · Q2 2026 earnings call

[11] Drillr · American Superconductor (AMSC) · 2026-05-28 · Q4 fiscal 2026 earnings call

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