Jan 23 (Reuters) - The unit of Blackstone

dedicated to investments in the energy industry has agreed to

acquire Potomac Energy Center, the asset manager told Reuters on

Thursday, in a deal symbolizing the allure to investors of power

plants sited near data centers.

Blackstone Energy Transition Partners has agreed to buy the

774-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in Loudoun County in

northern Virginia, according to a statement.

The statement gave no financial details, but sources

familiar with the matter said Blackstone is paying around $1

billion for the facility. Fellow investment firm Ares Management ( ARES )

has owned the plant since 2021.

Potomac Energy Center is situated in the area of northern

Virginia outside of Washington D.C. which is estimated to have

around a quarter of the current U.S. data center capacity.

This proximity was one of the reasons why Potomac Energy

Center was so attractive, according to Blackstone Energy

Transition Partners' Senior Managing Director Bilal Khan.

"This opportunity is unique," Khan told Reuters. "Not only

for its location and its unparalleled access to data centers in

Virginia, but also for the efficiency of the plant and the young

age of the facility."

The plant was built in 2017.

The boom in artificial intelligence and data centers is

driving power demand to record levels, with growth expected to

persist for the rest of the decade. This is making generation

assets increasingly attractive to buyers, especially so for

gas-fired power plants which can provide the consistent power

output that data centers require.

Earlier this month, Constellation Energy ( CEG ) agreed the

$16.4 billion purchase of Calpine. The largest U.S. power deal

in nearly two decades is aimed at adding Calpine's predominantly

gas-fired fleet to Constellation's existing generation mix which

is majority nuclear power.

Blackstone has been investing, across a number of strategies,

into both data centers and the energy infrastructure powering

them. In September, it agreed a $16 billion deal to buy

Australian data center operator AirTrunk, while AI cloud

platform CoreWeave said in May it raised a $7.5 billion debt

facility from investment firms including Blackstone.