The construction of a new 17-MW microgrid for ViVaVerse Solutions, a colocation data center services provider, was announced this week.

Located at the former Compaq Computer/HPE headquarters in Houston, the more than 90-acre ViVa Center campus is being re-imagined as a mixed-use technology hub that will be home to a high-performance computing data center, more than 200 data labs and mission-critical infrastructure.

The natural gas-powered microgrid will be built and operated by RPower, a provider of prime and backup power solutions. RPower will manage the microgrid for ViVaVerse under a Resiliency-as-a-Service (RaaS) agreement, a business model that provides reliable electricity for a business should there be a grid outage.

Under this type of long-term service agreement, the RaaS developer installs, owns, operates and matains the microgrid so the customer can focus on their business, rather than the electricity powering their business. In return, the customer pays a flat monthly fee.

«We’re pleased to partner with RPower on this groundbreaking initiative, which will propel both the high-performance computing infrastructure in Houston and the energy transition in Texas,» said Eduardo Morales, CEO of ViVaVerse Solutions and Morales Capital Group.