Abbott orders Texas data center grid audit

Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive verification and audit of all data centers advancing through ERCOT’s interconnection process before any project moves forward.

• The audit must be completed before any data center project is allowed to proceed, and projects that fail to comply with PUCT and ERCOT requirements will be denied connection to the Texas grid.
• Abbott said the review should capture financial assistance, power supply, water use, cooling technology, community impacts, and ownership and controlling interests for each project; the release says ERCOT is considering about 474 gigawatts of interconnection requests, with around 90% coming from data centers.