As cities around the world grapple with ever-increasing energy needs — for data centers, electric vehicles and more — power companies are rushing to meet that demand.
Base Power, a two-year-old power company based in Texas, is taking an unorthodox approach: It leases huge batteries to homeowners that it can tap for extra energy as needed. And it has amassed yet more financial resources to carry out its plan.
The company plans to announce on Wednesday that it has raised $1 billion in new funding.
The investment round values Base Power at about $3 billion, not counting the new money, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who was not authorized to discuss financials publicly. That is more than double the company’s valuation in April, according to the data provider PitchBook.
Though many power companies are focusing on building giant industrial batteries as a way to store energy — often generated by wind or solar facilities — and provide it when demand rises, Base Power is building what amounts to a fleet of home batteries. The company essentially leases and installs residential backup batteries at a discount to competing systems, and sells power to its customers.
The company then uses software to fill the batteries when electricity is cheap and draw from them when power is more expensive, profiting from the difference in price and passing some of the savings onto customers. (Base Power also offers its software to power companies.)
The goal, according to Zach Dell, Base Power’s co-founder and chief executive, is to build “the modern power company.”
Since it began operations, Base Power has sold more than 100 megawatt hours’ worth of battery capacity, or enough energy to power 33,000 U.S. homes for an hour.
Key to Base Power’s business has been the deregulated nature of the energy market in Texas, where it operates and where customers can choose among different power providers. The company recently qualified for a state program that allows fleets of batteries to combine their power and send it back to the grid.
That could help Base Power sell excess energy from its batteries at times of higher demand. “We can say, ‘Hey, we can give you 100 megawatts faster and cheaper than anyone,” Mr. Dell said.
Though the company had raised $200 million in April, investors clamored to put more money in to help it expand, Mr. Dell said in an interview. It has already embarked on expensive new projects, notably by building a battery factory in Austin, Texas — it currently buys batteries from a company in Asia — and plans to build a second soon.
“The administration has been very clear that they want America to be an energy powerhouse,” Mr. Dell said.
Base Power plans to use the new funds to expand to other regions, among other investments. Mr. Dell said the company was likely to announce its next U.S. market by the end of the year, and hoped to expand internationally by the second half of 2026.
Participants in the round include existing backers such as Addition and Thrive Capital, where Mr. Dell previously worked as a venture capitalist. It also includes new investors like CapitalG, the Google-affiliated investment firm.
“Base Power’s commitment to resilient, affordable energy is transforming how communities in Texas — and soon, nationwide — access electricity,” Lee Fixel, Addition’s founder, said in a statement.
Mr. Dell’s father, the technology billionaire Michael Dell, is not among Base Power’s backers. “He’s an incredible mentor, coach and friend,” the younger Mr. Dell said. “But this is being built kind of independent of his capital and direct resources.”
Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006.
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