Proposed Fort Bliss Data Center Could Consume More Power Than All of El Paso
Why It Matters
Texas is at the center of a major national push to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure for the U.S. military, and the proposed data center at Fort Bliss in El Paso could reshape the region’s energy grid, water supply, and air quality for decades. The scale of the facility raises serious questions about resource consumption and local impact — questions that, as of now, remain largely unanswered.
What Happened
The U.S. Army is proposing to develop a massive 3-gigawatt data center complex on Fort Bliss property in far East El Paso. If completed, the facility would consume more electricity than all of El Paso Electric’s 460,000 customers combined, according to Army officials who briefed reporters in late April.
The publicly-traded investment firm Carlyle Group has been conditionally selected to build and operate the facility. The project is part of a national rollout under President Donald Trump’s administration to rapidly expand AI technology capabilities for the Department of Defense. Army officials stress the facility is a strategic national security priority, not merely a local infrastructure project.
“The state of modern warfare and future warfare is largely going to depend on the ability to capture, process and utilize massive amounts of data,” said David Fitzgerald, deputy undersecretary of the Army, in remarks at a community meeting on April 22. “So, the reality is, this is a strategic priority, not just for the Army, but for the entire Department of War. So, we need these capabilities, and we need to put them somewhere.”
Army officials are targeting an initial operating capacity of approximately 100 megawatts on the compute side by next year, with full build-out to 3 gigawatts projected by 2029. The Army has set a goal to be at least operational by the end of 2027, meaning construction would need to begin in the near term. No official cost estimate has been released, and no definitive agreement with Carlyle Group has been finalized.
By the Numbers
3 gigawatts — projected electricity demand of the Fort Bliss data center complex by 2029.
2.9 gigawatts — El Paso Electric’s total current generation capacity across its entire service territory, from Hatch, New Mexico, to Van Horn, Texas.
2.3 gigawatts — the highest customer demand El Paso Electric has ever recorded, reached during the summer of 2023.
460,000 — El Paso Electric customers whose combined power usage would be surpassed by the proposed data center alone.
$10 billion — the value of Meta Platform’s nearby data center facility in Northeast El Paso, one of two other major projects already underway in the region.
Zoom Out
The Fort Bliss proposal would make the El Paso Borderland region one of three large-scale data center projects in the area. Meta Platforms is building a $10 billion facility in Northeast El Paso, while Oracle and OpenAI are developing the $165 billion Project Jupiter campus in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, just across the state line. Together, these projects could transform the Borderland into one of the nation’s core hubs for AI infrastructure and power generation.
The Trump administration’s broader effort to accelerate military AI capabilities mirrors similar federal pushes in other states, as the Defense Department races to compete with foreign adversaries in data processing and artificial intelligence. Texas voters have faced growing complexity navigating politically charged decisions in recent cycles, and the rapid pace of federal infrastructure decisions on military land raises similar questions about how much input local communities can realistically expect in the process.
Combined-cycle natural gas turbines are cited as the “most likely” power source for the facility, according to Jeff Waksman, an assistant secretary of the Army. That approach would likely produce significant greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, including particulate matter, in a densely populated area of El Paso.
Unanswered Questions on Water and Power
Critical infrastructure questions remain unresolved. El Paso Electric confirmed it has received no formal request for service from the Army and does not yet know whether the data center will connect to the regional power grid. El Paso Water similarly indicated it was only recently brought into discussions and has only preliminary information.
Water sourcing is a particular concern. The Army’s own solicitation documents rate El Paso’s water risk as “extremely high.” Fort Bliss draws most of its water from wells tapping the Hueco Bolson aquifer — El Paso’s primary groundwater source. Army officials stated the facility will be “water neutral,” though no detailed plan has been made public explaining how that would be achieved. Environmental review is expected before construction begins, officials said.
What’s Next
The Army is moving quickly to finalize its agreement with Carlyle Group and begin construction. Officials have indicated that meeting the end-of-2027 operational target will require construction to begin soon. Environmental review processes and coordination with El Paso city leadership on power and water logistics are expected to be the next major milestones. Major decisions with statewide and community implications are increasingly being resolved outside traditional public deliberation — a pattern that local leaders in El Paso may find familiar as this project moves forward.