--- title: "Vistra sold 20 years of Texas power to a campus with no tenant to pay its $110 million first-year bill" description: "New Era Energy & Digital's 10-Q prices the deal at about $110 million a year, take-or-pay, secured by a $116 million letter of credit. It matters because 2028, the first year the power flows, is the year Vistra left only 78% hedged." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Power" published: 2026-11-15T16:18:33.230Z modified: 2026-11-15T16:18:33.230Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/vistra-sold-20-years-of-texas-power-to-a-campus-with-no-tenant-to-pay-its-110-million-first-year-bill language: en keywords: "Vistra, New Era Energy & Digital, Data Centers, Power Contracts, ERCOT" --- # Vistra sold 20 years of Texas power to a campus with no tenant to pay its $110 million first-year bill > New Era Energy & Digital's 10-Q prices the deal at about $110 million a year, take-or-pay, secured by a $116 million letter of credit. It matters because 2028, the first year the power flows, is the year Vistra left only 78% hedged. [Vistra](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/vistra) [sold 20 years of firm Texas power in September](https://theinference.org/article/a-company-with-no-tenant-signed-a-20-year-power-bill-and-its-stock-jumped-30), and this month the buyer's own filing shows what that revenue stands on [1]. New Era Energy & Digital (Nasdaq: NUAI), a small developer building a data center campus in Odessa, disclosed the price in [a 10-Q filed November 12](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2028336/000119312526456806/nuai-20260930.htm): the fixed part of its power bill alone runs about $110 million in the first contract year, take-or-pay [1]. The tenant whose rent would cover that bill has not signed; New Era is negotiating under a non-binding letter of intent [2]. The power is contracted. The revenue that pays for it is a letter of intent. ## The contract is take-or-pay, and the credit is cash [The deal, signed September 18](https://www.morningstar.com/news/globe-newswire/9830274/new-era-energy-digital-secures-20-year-207-mw-ppa-with-vistra) between New Era's subsidiary TCDC PowerCo and Luminant ET Services, a Vistra affiliate, requires payment for the full contracted quantity whether or not the campus consumes it [1]. That is 200 to 207 megawatts every hour, with power due from the third quarter of 2027 [1]. The source is Vistra's 1,180 MW gas plant across the fence from the site [3]. ![Two natural gas fired generating units with tall exhaust stacks behind a line of pine trees, with a transmission tower at right](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/cd825ac90223f329.jpg) *A gas-fired power plant in Texas, the kind of asset behind the Odessa contract. The units shown are the Sim Gideon plant on Lake Bastrop, not the 1,180 MW Vistra plant across the fence from New Era's site. (Larry D. Moore)* ## The security is cash, posted before any tenant Vistra asked for real credit support. The contract requires a $116 million standby letter of credit for its full term, plus uncapped additional security from the day power flows, sized to the seller's mark-to-market and rising if ERCOT (Texas's main grid) forward prices fall [1]. Macquarie, the project lender, issued that letter of credit in October against about $118 million of restricted cash [1]. New Era funded part of the collateral with $60 million of Macquarie borrowings [1]. It repaid the lender with a $64 million share sale priced at $2.75, after Macquarie waived its own condition that a data center lease be signed before it lent [1]. The scale gap is stark: New Era's revenue for the first nine months of 2026 was under $1 million, from the legacy Permian gas wells of a company that pivoted to data centers last year [1]. *Chart: **New Era's first-year power bill is twice its unrestricted cash** Bar chart comparing New Era's unrestricted cash, its year-one fixed power payment, and the letter-of-credit cash collateral, in millions of dollars* *New Era Energy & Digital, $ millions. Year-one figure is the fixed and determinable portion at minimum contract quantity, before gas-indexed and pass-through charges; collateral backs the $116M letter of credit to Luminant. Sources: Form 10-Q, Nov 12, 2026; business update, Nov 12, 2026. [1][2]* ## Vistra's 2028 book is the exposed end [Vistra's November 6 call](https://theinference.org/article/vistra-guided-2027-ebitda-to-7-7-to-8-5-billion-with-98-of-output-hedged-before-the-texas-vote), which we covered, set the backdrop: about 98% of expected 2027 generation is hedged [4][5]. For 2028 the cover drops to 78%, and lower still in ERCOT [4]. Texas supplies just under 40% of Vistra's generation earnings [4]. The Odessa sale is firm revenue beginning exactly where that cover thins. Its protection even moves with Vistra's own warning: management said ERCOT forwards have softened, and softer forwards automatically raise New Era's collateral requirement [1][4]. Nor is the sale fully closed on Vistra's side. Luminant's delivery obligation still depends on executing a related infrastructure agreement, and New Era can walk away without liability if no power has flowed by the end of 2027 [1]. The campus also connects behind the meter, on a private network outside ERCOT's interconnection process, so this demand strengthens a Vistra plant while staying invisible to the load forecasts Vistra trimmed this quarter [2][5]. ## The lease signature decides both stories New Era has done the middle work between a power capability and a paying customer: 493 acres owned, site preparation underway, an air permit filed for Phase 2 generation, collateral posted [2]. Vistra aligned itself with the outcome, taking 5% of the powered portion of the project once delivery begins, plus first rights on future development there [1][3]. Only the paying link is missing. Management told [the November 12 call](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/era-energy-digital-provides-business-113000536.html) it is negotiating definitive lease documents with a major technology firm, under the letter of intent covering Phases 1 and 2 [6]. New Era expects Phase 1 to need $150 million to $400 million of spending in the first year after a tenant signs [1]. That signature is what turns Odessa into earnings for either company. It funds the $110 million annual bill on one side, and converts Vistra's secured megawatts into two decades of firm demand on the other. Until it lands, the newest number in Vistra's Texas story is someone else's escrow. ## Takeaway New Era's first-year power bill is about $110 million, take-or-pay, and the tenant that would pay it has only a letter of intent. ## Sources 1. [New Era Energy & Digital, Inc., Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, SEC EDGAR, filed November 12, 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2028336/000119312526456806/nuai-20260930.htm) 2. [New Era Energy & Digital Provides Business Update and Reports Q3 2026 Results, GlobeNewswire via Yahoo Finance, November 12, 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/era-energy-digital-provides-business-113000536.html) 3. [New Era Energy & Digital Secures 20-Year, 207 MW PPA with Vistra, GlobeNewswire via Morningstar, September 21, 2026](https://www.morningstar.com/news/globe-newswire/9830274/new-era-energy-digital-secures-20-year-207-mw-ppa-with-vistra) 4. [Trefis, Do You Like Cash? Consider Vistra Stock, November 12, 2026](https://www.trefis.com/stock/vst/articles/624534/do-you-like-cash-consider-vistra-stock/2026-11-12) 5. [Earnings Whispers via Finviz, Vistra Beats On A Record EBITDA Quarter And Sets 2027 Guidance, But Texas Policy Risk Now Drives The Stock, November 9, 2026](https://finviz.com/news/418966/vistra-beats-on-a-record-ebitda-quarter-and-sets-2027-guidance-but-texas-policy-risk-now-drives-the-stock) 6. [The Motley Fool via MSN, New Era Energy & Digital: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors, November 14, 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/new-era-energy-digital-3-key-takeaways-for-long-term-investors/ar-AA2hrFMp) --- Vistra sold 20 years of Texas power to a campus with no tenant to pay its $110 million first-year bill — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/vistra-sold-20-years-of-texas-power-to-a-campus-with-no-tenant-to-pay-its-110-million-first-year-bill