Lydian's 150 MW / 600 MWh Faraday BESS in Utah Backs Meta Data Center

Lydian Energy said on Nov. 10, 2026 that its Faraday battery energy storage system (BESS) in Utah County, Utah, has reached commercial operation as a 150 MW / 600 MWh, four-hour lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) plant that began operating on Sept. 18.

The Excelsior Energy Capital-backed developer said in a Business Wire release that Faraday is contracted through a Schedule 34 contract in support of Meta's Eagle Mountain data center operations. The battery delivers 600 MWh of contracted storage capacity to the utility PacifiCorp under a long-term energy storage agreement. Lydian said the build ran from mobilization to commercial operation in about 10 months, and that a June wildfire near the site did not derail the schedule.

For data-center planners, the useful number is the ratio. Four hours at 150 MW means the plant can discharge at full power for 4 hours, which makes it a capacity resource for the utility rather than a short-duration backup. The release does not say Meta owns or dispatches the battery: the Meta link is the Schedule 34 contract, and Meta's own comment ties its energy investments to getting projects such as Faraday onto the grid.

Site, shared grid connection and tax

The system sits on roughly eight acres next to Lydian's 525 MW Faraday solar facility and uses that facility's substation and interconnection. Lydian said this let it add storage on existing infrastructure instead of seeking a new grid connection. The company expects the battery to pay about $9 million in property tax over the project's life. Amanda Yang, Meta's Director of Clean and Renewable Energy, said in the release that storage gives utilities flexibility in extreme weather or unexpected outages.

Two figures for the same project

Lydian's earlier release of Feb. 17, 2026 announced $689 million of financing from CIBC and MUFG for the AC Ranch 1 and Yellow Viking solar projects and for "Faraday BESS Phase 1", which it described as a 150 MW / 733 MWh system in Utah. The Nov. 10 release gives 150 MW / 600 MWh for the operating plant. Power is the same in both; the energy figure differs by 133 MWh, and neither release explains why. The $689 million also covers two solar projects, so it is not a price for the battery alone.

How it compares and what comes next

Lydian is developing Faraday BESS 2 at the same site: up to 375 MW / 1,500 MWh, targeted for service in the fourth quarter of 2028. That would be 2.5 times the first phase on both power and energy. For comparison, as Voltgrid reported, BW ESS's Hams Hall battery in the West Midlands entered commercial operation at 350 MW / 1,243 MWh, a different market and offtake structure. Voltgrid has also tracked Meta's power deals on the generation side, where the volumes are far larger.

What is not confirmed yet

Lydian has not said why the energy rating moved from 733 MWh in February to 600 MWh, nor whether 600 MWh is the contracted or the nameplate figure. The Schedule 34 terms, the battery supplier and the price were not disclosed in the release or in the trade report Voltgrid read, Renewable Energy Magazine. Energy-Storage.news, which first reported the news on the wire, could not be read for this story. Faraday BESS 2 is a development target, not an approved or financed project.