Core Summary

  • The independent market monitor for the PJM Interconnection urged the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday to require a subsidiary of Mara Holdings to commit to keeping the output of its planned 522-megawatt power plant acquisition within the grid operator's electricity market.
  • Monitoring Analytics, the market monitor, said that allowing Mara to sell power from the gas-fired Long Ridge plant in Hannibal, Ohio, to data centers during a period of tight electricity supply would harm PJM customers. The monitor stated: "If Mara does not commit to not removing Long Ridge's capacity and energy from the PJM market to serve data center load, the transaction should not be approved."
  • However, Mara said it plans to continue selling power from the Long Ridge plant into the PJM market. Fred Thiel, the company's chairman and CEO, said during a call with stock analysts on April 30, the day the deal was announced, that new data centers built at the site would be paired with new power generation facilities.

In-Depth Analysis

Data center developers appear increasingly interested in venturing into the power plant business. About a month before Mara announced its deal, DigitalBridge Group, which owns data centers and other digital infrastructure, said it planned to acquire ArcLight Capital Partners, a private independent power producer.

Additionally, Mara's acquisition of the Long Ridge combined-cycle plant comes as the PJM market faces tightening capacity supply and soaring electricity prices, driven largely by data center development. PJM operates the grid and wholesale electricity market covering 13 mid-Atlantic and midwestern states plus the District of Columbia.

According to the market monitor, the impact of data center load growth on market competition is the most critical issue facing the PJM market. Monitoring Analytics told FERC: "A comprehensive solution has not yet been identified."

Mara, a bitcoin/digital infrastructure company, announced on April 30 plans to acquire the Long Ridge plant and 1,600 acres of land at the site from FTAI Infrastructure for $1.5 billion, including assuming at least $785 million in debt. Mara already operates a 200-megawatt bitcoin mining facility at the site.

Mara said the campus will provide immediate access to power, land, water, and fiber optics, and support over 1 gigawatt of potential power capacity and 600 megawatts of data center load. The company expects the transaction to close in the second half of this year, subject to regulatory approvals.

According to Mara's presentation on the deal, the Long Ridge plant operates at an 89% capacity factor with operating costs of approximately $15 per megawatt-hour. About 76% of the plant's energy sales are hedged through financial swaps. Mara says the plant generates approximately $144 million in annual EBITDA. The plant began operations in October 2021.

Thiel said on the analyst call that the acquisition plan is part of Mara's transformation into the energy and AI/high-performance computing space.

"Electricity is the most important input, and we want to allocate it to the highest-value applications," Thiel said in the call transcript. "This includes AI and high-performance computing, critical IT infrastructure, and flexible computing, including bitcoin mining."

Thiel said Mara's goal is to "dynamically allocate power to maximize returns."

Duncan Dickerson, Mara's chief growth and strategy officer, said Mara has obtained permits and is "on track" to add 200 megawatts of generation capacity at the site, while the existing Long Ridge team is developing another 200 megawatts. He said the new capacity is expected to come online by 2030.

In its first-quarter shareholder letter, Mara said it is advancing a pipeline of potential energized land and infrastructure deals.

"Mara is repositioning itself as a digital infrastructure company aimed at controlling and monetizing high-value energy assets across multiple computing markets," the company said.

According to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 11, Mara's first-quarter loss widened to $1.3 billion, compared with a loss of $533.4 million in the same period in 2025. Its quarterly revenue fell 18% to $174.6 million, down from $213.9 million in the first three months of 2025.