Some of the equipment helping power the artificial-intelligence boom is taking shape in Granbury. The VoltaGrid Granbury manufacturing expansion is tying a longtime industrial operation to one of the data-center industry’s biggest challenges: getting enough electricity to enormous computing campuses quickly.
VoltaGrid is scaling the former Propell operation as a new 153,000-square-foot Super Plant project moves forward along Discovery Drive. The company says its announced Granbury expansion is expected to increase manufacturing capability to approximately 300 megawatts per month across reciprocating-engine and turbine systems.
That puts Granbury in the supply chain behind an industry often discussed in terms of chips and servers. Before those machines can run, someone has to build the equipment that supplies their power.
Why the VoltaGrid Granbury expansion matters to AI
AI and high-performance-computing campuses consume huge amounts of electricity. In some markets, developers can build faster than traditional utility infrastructure can deliver the power they need. That gap creates demand for large generating systems at or near the data centers themselves.
VoltaGrid calls its approach behind-the-meter power generation. In plain English, it means producing electricity on the customer’s side of the utility meter, close to where the customer needs it. This can help serve campuses that face grid constraints.
Its proprietary QPac platform packages generation equipment into units designed for large power needs. INNIO describes Jenbacher engines integrated into QPac in 25-megawatt units. VoltaGrid’s broader manufacturing plans span engine and turbine systems, along with the electrical equipment needed to connect and control them.
For Granbury, the opportunity lies in making and integrating that equipment. The local expansion connects factory-floor work to the urgent push to bring more computing capacity online.
An order book measured in gigawatts
The demand behind the manufacturing push is already substantial. VoltaGrid has disclosed an approximately 7.5-gigawatt order book through 2030. A gigawatt equals 1,000 megawatts, underscoring the scale of the systems involved.
In October 2025, INNIO announced a 2.3-gigawatt order involving 92 power packs for a VoltaGrid data-center project. It followed in February 2026 with an additional 1.5-gigawatt agreement involving 300 Jenbacher engines for AI and high-performance-computing data centers.
Meanwhile, Vantage Data Centers and VoltaGrid announced a partnership for more than one gigawatt of prime power generation across Vantage’s North American portfolio. ABB has also announced additional orders for equipment that helps keep electricity stable in VoltaGrid data-center power systems.
Those commitments give the VoltaGrid Granbury expansion a wider context. Public announcements do not assign equipment from this particular Super Plant to any named customer.
From oilfield equipment to data-center power
Granbury’s role in this story began well before the AI construction boom. In 2017, Propell acquired the former Total Equipment and Service manufacturing operation, a business rooted in building oilfield equipment.
Before VoltaGrid’s acquisition, Propell was already enlarging its capabilities. The company described a 260-foot expansion of its heavy-lift facility with four additional 80-ton bridge cranes. That investment reflects the size of the equipment this manufacturing operation can handle.
Now the same industrial lineage is increasingly connected to power-generation systems for data centers, microgrids and other industrial customers. Oilfield manufacturing experience forms part of the foundation for this next stage; the shift does not mean every other market has disappeared.
VoltaGrid confirmed that its Propell acquisition has closed and that the former Granbury facilities have been rebranded as VoltaGrid. That explains the two names readers may encounter: the new state paperwork still identifies the facility as Propell Super Plant, while the operation is now part of VoltaGrid’s manufacturing business.
VoltaGrid Granbury plans gain financial backing
The acquisition announcement came alongside a $1 billion strategic equity investment backed by Blackstone and Halliburton. The announced transaction included $775 million in primary capital and a $225 million secondary purchase from existing investors.
That was financing for VoltaGrid’s broader business, rather than a $1 billion allocation specifically to Granbury. Still, it shows the scale of the backing behind the company’s effort to expand manufacturing and deliver power systems.
As part of its announced expansion of the existing operation, VoltaGrid said it would immediately invest in two additional next-generation automated manufacturing plants in Granbury. The approximately 300-megawatt monthly capability is an expected manufacturing rate, not a guarantee of actual output.
The Discovery Drive development trail
The local development process adds another view of the industrial growth. In August 2026, Granbury officials considered cases CP-26-8 and ZONE-26-14, tied to Mark Franco at 5500 Discovery Drive.
The city’s public notices describe a request to change the future land-use designation from retail/office and low-density residential to Industrial. The related zoning request sought Planned Development zoning with an Industrial base district in place of Interim Holding. The review included a development plan and elevation plans.
The state construction filing uses 5480 Discovery Drive. The timing and shared Red Cedar, Mark Franco and Propell context make the local case relevant to the broader expansion, but the two addresses should not be treated as an established match to the same parcel.
What the VoltaGrid Granbury Super Plant filing establishes
TDLR project TABS2027001634, filed as Red Cedar LLC Super Plant, lists 153,000 square feet of new construction and a registered value of $21,340,440. Its scope identifies Buildings A and B plus a future North Building, with site improvements, parking, utilities, employee and support areas, and accessible routes.
The filing surfaces as VoltaGrid begins its previously announced Granbury expansion. However, available project information does not definitively identify Buildings A and B as the exact two automated plants in the company announcement.
The registered construction schedule runs from September 2026 through December 2027. That schedule does not establish an opening date or the start of full manufacturing output.
VoltaGrid has not publicly disclosed how many new Granbury jobs the manufacturing expansion is expected to create.
The VoltaGrid Granbury expansion gives an established manufacturing operation a growing role in the infrastructure behind AI. The Super Plant filing brings another substantial construction project into that story, as demand for power equipment reaches far beyond Discovery Drive.