HOUSTON, Tx. — Three years after first announcing plans to study a location for a power generation plant in West Virginia, Fidelis New Energy on Wednesday formally announced plans to move forward with the operation. The facility in Mason County, West Virginia has been in development for the past three years.
In a press release, company officials said the facility will be operated by the newly formed American Intelligence and Power Corporation or AIP Corp. The Mason County site will be AIP Corp’s flagship operation known as the Monarch Cloud Campus. It’s described by developers as “…a purpose-built platform to develop, own, and operate large-scale fully integrated A-I infrastructure and power microgrids to deliver high reliability power solutions for hyperscale and enterprise data center customers.”
The Mason County operation will be an 8 GW A-I Microgrid Platform. Energy generated will be designed explicitly to support A-I driven workloads. Company officials said the power produced will provide resources for:
–Accelerated time-to-market for AI infrastructure deployment
–High availability power performance, including the ability to manage extreme load variability characteristic of advanced AI compute
–Utility-grade reliability and resilience for mission-critical compute operations
–Sovereign operational control to support the requirements of security-sensitive and latency-sensitive workloads
Company officials said when operational, Monarch is strategically located and the site benefits from strong fiber connections and multi-modal transportation like rail, proximity to major U.S. Inland ports, and industrial water access. The Monarch operation will also be able to leverage the region’s abundant natural gas supply with nearby pipeline access for long term fuel reliability and supply. The site further offered developers proximity to major data center markets and key digital and industrial growth corridors.
The company added, “Monarch is being developed with strong environmental performance in mind and is designed to comply with applicable air permitting requirements. Critically, Monarch is a fully self-supplied, behind-the-meter power platform and will not increase rates or add costs for existing residential, commercial, or industrial utility customers.”
The developers credited Governor Patrick Morrisey’s vision to bolster West Virginia’s energy resources with programs like his 50 by 50 plan. They also praised former Governor now Senator Jim Justice for earlier microgrid legislative action. The company also noted the federal support of U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito and former Senator Joe Manchin.
“I truly could not be prouder to see the seeds of our work from years ago begin to bloom in the state with this announcement from the American Power and Intelligence Corporation. These investments are a huge deal, and push West Virginia to the forefront of a new age. West Virginia has the energy, has the workforce, and has then economic environment to attract investment from around the world, and we’re only getting started. I ran the state like a business from the start, and nobody can deny business is absolutely booming,” said Senator Jim Justice in a released statement after the announcement.
The release gave no indication on a timeline for construction and for operations for the facility to begin.