Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant

Vistra · Glen Rose · Somervell County

Vistra's two-unit Comanche Peak plant near Glen Rose supplies about 2,400 MW of ERCOT baseload and is licensed to run into the 2050s. Half of that output, 1,200 MW, is contracted to Amazon for 20 years from 2027 to serve a data center campus planned on Vistra land next to the plant.

Dec 1974Construction begins on both units Aug 1990Unit 1 enters commercial operation Aug 1993Unit 2 enters commercial operation Jul 2024NRC renews licenses to 2050 and 2053 Sep 29, 2025Vistra discloses 1,200 MW, 20-year PPA Feb 2026Somervell County advances Amazon campus deal Feb 26, 2026Vistra names Amazon as the buyer 2027First power deliveries to Amazon
Capacity
2,400 MW
Units
Two PWRs
Contracted
1,200 MW to Amazon
Licensed to
2050 and 2053
County
Somervell
Sector
Energy

Overview

Two Westinghouse Units Anchor North Texas Nuclear Supply

Comanche Peak sits near Glen Rose in Somervell County, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra Corp, operates two Westinghouse four-loop pressurized water reactors (PWRs): Unit 1 at 1,209 MW net and Unit 2 at 1,197 MW net, for about 2,400 MW. Construction began in December 1974; Unit 1 entered commercial operation in August 1990 and Unit 2 in August 1993. The plant sells into the grid run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), alongside the South Texas Project near Bay City, the only other operating nuclear plant in Texas.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved 20-year license renewals in July 2024, extending Unit 1 to 2050 and Unit 2 to 2053. Vistra reports more than 600 employees and over 200 permanent contractors on site, with 800 to 1,200 more technicians during refueling outages. The plant is the largest taxpayer in Somervell County, paying more than $30 million a year in state and local taxes. Cooling water comes from the 3,275-acre Comanche Creek Reservoir, renamed from Squaw Creek Reservoir in 2022.

Profile
OperatorLuminant (Vistra Corp)
LocationNear Glen Rose, Somervell County
ReactorsTwo Westinghouse four-loop PWRs
Net capacity1,209 MW and 1,197 MW
Commercial operation1990 and 1993
License expiration2050 and 2053
CoolingComanche Creek Reservoir
GridERCOT
Anchor customerAmazon, up to 1,200 MW

Amazon Deal

Amazon Buys Half the Plant's Output for 20 Years

Vistra disclosed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for up to 1,200 MW from Comanche Peak in an SEC filing on September 29, 2025, naming the buyer only as a large investment-grade company. On the February 26, 2026 earnings call, CEO Jim Burke identified Amazon. The contract carries options to extend another 20 years and to explore uprates and small modular reactors (SMRs) at the site. First power is expected in 2027, with the full 1,200 MW by 2032.

Amazon Data Services plans the load on about 435 acres of Vistra-owned land next to the plant. A Somervell County tax abatement application filed in February 2026 describes up to 18 two-story buildings and about $5 billion of investment, with a reported $2.5 million payment to the county at groundbreaking and $300,000 per building per year. Construction could start in 2027. Amazon is also working with Hood County officials on Project Spectrum, a tract of more than 1,265 acres on Coates Road in Granbury. Amazon also bought the gas-fired GW Ranch site in Pecos County; see AWS Texas Compute.

On the August 7, 2026 earnings call, Burke said the Amazon data center remained on track to energize in 2027. Vistra sees about 200 MW of possible uprates at Comanche Peak, likely after 2028. The US Department of Energy's conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion, announced in October 2026 for Vistra's Ohio and Pennsylvania plants, includes an option to finance those uprates.

Expansion

Uprates and SMRs Are the Paths Past 2,400 MW

Luminant planned two Mitsubishi US-APWR units of about 1,700 MW each at the site and filed a combined license application in September 2008; the project was suspended by 2013. Vistra's current options are smaller: roughly 200 MW of uprates and SMRs under the Amazon contract's development options. No reactor vendor, size or schedule has been announced.

Other Texas nuclear projects run on longer timelines. Fermi America plans Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at its HyperGrid campus in Carson County, and Aalo Atomics is building factory-made sodium-cooled reactors in Austin and Georgetown.

Constraints

Grid Review and Permits Shape the Campus Schedule

Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT to audit large-load data center requests on August 3, 2026, and on September 21 directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to pause data center air and water permits until the review ends, expected in mid-December 2026. In August, before the permit pause, Burke said studied baseload projects such as Comanche Peak should keep moving. Amazon's construction start is set for 2027, and no change to the campus timeline has been announced. The campus connection falls under the large-load interconnection rules of Texas Senate Bill 6 (2025); see ERCOT Large Load Interconnection.

Record

Dataset Record

Sources
Vistra Corp, Vistra SEC Form 8-K, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, World Nuclear News, Utility Dive, Power Engineering, Data Center Dynamics, Construction Review Online, US Board on Geographic Names, Office of the Texas Governor
Last verified
October 2026