Texas to audit up to 300 data center projects

Texas state officials announced that an audit and verification process will be conducted on approximately 250 to 300 projects, the majority of which are data centers. This action follows a directive from Governor Greg Abbott issued on August 3 to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).

The audit aims to prioritize verification before the interconnection study process begins. The scale of the energy demand involved is significant; the projects slated for audit account for 200 gigawatts of future demand, which is more than double the peak demand record recently set on the ERCOT grid.

The audit is specifically limited to projects currently under consideration in ERCOT’s ‘Batch Zero’ study. This study was established to manage a massive queue of over 1,800 individual projects, 90% of which are data centers, that have overwhelmed the grid operator's previous individual approval processes.