Texas Governor Greg Abbott Orders Audits of Data Center Grid Connections

Governor Greg Abbott directed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) to audit every data‑center project seeking a connection to the state’s electricity grid. The audit will verify projected electricity and water use, ownership, financing, construction schedules, noise controls and light‑pollution measures. Projects that fail to provide the required information may be denied access.

ERCOT reports more than 474 gigawatts of interconnection requests, about 90 % of which come from data‑center developers. This demand is roughly five times the grid’s historic peak and could strain Texas generation and transmission capacity. The surge is driven by the state’s relatively low power costs and abundant land, making Texas the second‑largest U.S. data‑center market after Virginia.

The directive also targets large‑scale Bitcoin‑mining and AI‑infrastructure projects. Of the 377 firms that responded to the PUCT’s questionnaire, only 28 provided complete data. Companies such as Hut 8 and CleanSpark have secured financing for multi‑hundred‑megawatt projects, while others remain awaiting approval. The federal Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has similarly called for a review of rules governing large power users.