Dive Brief:
- The PJM Interconnection’s independent market monitor on Friday urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require a MARA Holdings subsidiary to pledge to keep the output from a 522-MW power plant it plans to buy in the grid operator’s markets.
- Allowing MARA to sell electricity from the gas-fired Long Ridge power plant in Hannibal, Ohio, to data centers would harm PJM ratepayers at a time when power supplies *within the grid operator’s footprint*delete* are tight, according to Monitoring Analytics. “The transaction should not be approved without a commitment from MARA not to remove the Long Ridge capacity and energy from the PJM markets to serve data center load,” PJM’s market monitor said.
- MARA, however, plans to continue selling power from the Long Ridge power plant into PJM’s markets, according to the company. Any new data centers developed at the site would be paired with new generation, Fred Thiel, the company’s chairman and CEO, said during a call with equity analysts on April 30, the day the deal was announced.
Dive Insight:
Data center developers appear increasingly interested in getting into the power plant business. MARA announced its deal about a month before DigitalBridge Group, which owns data centers and other digital infrastructure, said it planned to buy ArcLight Capital Partners, a private independent power producer.
Also, MARA’s plan to buy the Long Ridge combined cycle power plant comes amid tightening capacity supplies and soaring prices in PJM, largely driven by data center development. PJM runs the grid and wholesale power markets in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia.
The effect of data center load growth on market competition is the most critical issue affecting PJM markets, according to the market monitor. “A comprehensive solution has not been defined,” Monitoring Analytics told FERC.
MARA, a Bitcoin/digital infrastructure company, on April 30 said it planned to buy the Long Ridge power plant and the site’s 1,600 acres for $1.5 billion from FTAI Infrastructure, including the assumption of at least $785 million of debt. MARA has a 200-MW Bitcoin mining operation at the site.
The campus will provide immediate access to power, land, water and fiber, and supports more than 1 GW of potential power capacity and 600 MW of data center load, MARA said. The company expects to close the deal in the second half this year, subject to regulatory approvals.
The Long Ridge power plant runs at an 89% capacity factor, with a roughly $15/MWh operating cost, according to a MARA presentation on the transaction. About 76% of the plant’s energy sales are hedged through a financial swap. The power plant produces about $144 million in annual “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization,” according to MARA. The power plant started operating in October 2021.
The planned purchase is part of MARA’s shift into energy and AI/high performance computing, Thiel said on the call with analysts.
“Power is the most important input, and we want to deploy it across the highest value applications,” Thiel said, according to a transcript of the call. “That includes AI and high-performance computing, critical IT infrastructure and flexible compute, including Bitcoin mining.”
MARA aims to “dynamically allocate that power to maximize returns,” Thiel said.
MARA has permits and “line of sight” to add 200 MW of generation at the campus while the existing Long Ridge team is developing an additional 200 MW, Duncan Dickerson, MARA’s chief growth and strategy officer, said. The additional capacity is expected to be online by 2030, he said.
The company is pursuing a pipeline of potential powered land and infrastructure deals, MARA said in a first-quarter letter to its shareholders.
“MARA is redefining itself as a digital infrastructure company designed to control and monetize high-value energy assets across multiple compute markets,” the company said.
MARA’s first-quarter loss expanded to $1.3 billion from a $533.4 million loss in the same period in 2025, according to a May 11 report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Its revenue fell 18% to $174.6 million in the quarter, down from $213.9 million in the first three months in 2025.
