An Irish engineering firm best known for building high-voltage power infrastructure has planted its North American flag in Uptown Dallas, betting that the region's data center boom will keep generating work even as state regulators slam the brakes on new grid connections. H&MV Engineering, headquartered in Limerick, Ireland, has opened its North American headquarters at 3131 McKinney Avenue and plans to expand its Dallas corporate office further as it chases a share of the billions flowing into Texas grid infrastructure.
The company, which works with hyperscalers, utilities and energy developers on grid connections for data center development, told The Real Deal that it selected Dallas for its combination of planned data center and energy investment and its transportation connectivity. H&MV Chief Executive Officer P.J. Flanagan said in a statement that those factors drove the decision. According to Dallas Innovates, H&MV announced plans in September to create 1,000 U.S. jobs over the next five years as it scales its high-voltage grid delivery capabilities toward $3.5 billion in global annual revenue.
Flanagan told the outlet that more than $7 billion in high-voltage electrical infrastructure projects is anticipated in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and along the Interstate 35 corridor in the coming years, and he noted that Texas and Louisiana are currently H&MV's most active regional markets in North America. The scale of that ambition tracks with the company's own growth: H&MV reported revenue of $70 million in 2020, a figure that has since climbed to more than $1.1 billion, per The Real Deal.
Building a Texas Foothold Before the Big Move
H&MV didn't arrive in Texas cold. The company expanded its U.S. operational presence in January by acquiring Amarillo-based Cooke Power Services, gaining local high-voltage construction crews, state-level licensing, and utility relationships spanning 15 kV to 345 kV systems, according to a report carried on PR Newswire. Cooke Power Services specializes in designing, building, testing and maintaining utility-scale substations and switching stations, giving H&MV boots on the ground before it formally planted a headquarters flag.
The company has also stacked its leadership bench for the push. In August, H&MV appointed Ken Gilmartin, the former chief executive of global engineering firm Wood, as Executive Vice President for U.S. Operations to run the national expansion from Dallas, as reported by Data Centre Magazine. Gilmartin previously held senior leadership roles at consulting firm Jacobs before heading Wood. That leadership hire arrived alongside fresh financial backing: H&MV established a €750 million private equity continuation vehicle in August led by existing backer Exponent alongside Apollo S3, Pantheon and SQ Capital, valuing the firm at roughly €1.4 billion, according to the Irish Examiner. Exponent has held a controlling stake in H&MV since 2022 as the firm expanded high-voltage engineering services across Europe and North America.
A Grid Freeze Looms Over the Boom
H&MV's Dallas bet lands squarely in the middle of a regulatory squeeze. Texas Governor Greg Abbott placed audits on projects seeking grid connections in the state, and those audits have stalled the data center development process and blocked several projects, per The Real Deal. Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT on August 3 to perform a comprehensive audit of all data center projects seeking grid connections before any new ones move forward, according to the Office of the Texas Governor, which cited roughly 474 gigawatts of total pending grid requests in ERCOT, with 90 percent tied to data center proposals.
ERCOT officials said the directive requires auditing approximately 250 to 300 large-load projects in its Batch Zero interconnection study, accounting for roughly 200 gigawatts of demand, with reviews expected to run through December, as reported by Utility Dive. Batch Zero was established by ERCOT in 2026 to evaluate large power connection requests in batches rather than individually, since Texas grid connections are completed by batch. Abbott escalated the pressure further on September 14, instructing the Texas Water Development Board to enforce mandatory water usage reporting on large consumers like data centers, warning that non-compliance could bring civil penalties, permit denials or criminal charges, according to Holland & Knight. Abbott also directed state water officials to coordinate their compliance checks directly with ERCOT's ongoing audit.
Local Pushback Meets National Compliance
The pressure isn't only coming from Austin. Texas municipalities are considering moratoriums on data center development, adding another layer of friction to a market that has otherwise moved at breakneck speed, per The Real Deal. Even so, anthropic and Amazon announced in statements with the governor's office that they will comply with the stricter regulation demands, and data center development continues in Texas despite the audits and local efforts to block it, according to the outlet.
The outlet notes that the standoff could ultimately form a large backlog of projects once moratoriums expire and legal challenges fail, releasing a wave of grid and construction work all at once. That is the exact scenario firms like H&MV appear to be positioning for: a temporary regulatory chokepoint that eventually gives way to a surge of high-voltage substation and connection work.
Why Dallas Won the Race
The underlying demand explains why H&MV chose Dallas over other major markets. Cushman & Wakefield ranked Dallas-Fort Worth as the No. 1 primary data center market in the world in its 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison report, according to Site Selection Magazine, placing the region ahead of Atlanta, Northern Virginia, Columbus and Johor, Malaysia, citing its real estate fundamentals, power infrastructure and development activity. A separate CBRE report found that DFW developers have pre-leased 95 percent of the more than 765 megawatts of data center capacity currently under construction, while total regional inventory exceeded 1,400 megawatts, per Dallas Innovates. That inventory jumped 81 percent year-over-year, with another 3.7 gigawatts of greenfield projects still planned.
That tension between soaring demand and a state-imposed pause has already shaped other North Texas data center storylines this year, from a Prosper rezoning revolt to the Dallas Environmental Commission's push to restrict water and grid usage. Whether H&MV's 1,000-job bet pays off may hinge less on its engineering résumé than on how quickly Austin's audits clear the backlog it's counting on.
