Texas orders audit of surging data centre power demand
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state utility bodies to audit all proposed new data centres, directing the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to collect information on developers' ownership, finances, power and water requirements, and plans to limit harm to residents. The order came after ERCOT revealed it was processing grid connection requests totalling more than 474 gigawatts, over 90% of it linked to data centre projects, which the governor's office warned could threaten the reliability and stability of the state's electricity grid.
Texas already hosts 521 data centres, the second-highest number of any US state after Virginia, meaning the scale of pending connection requests far exceeds existing capacity. The audit forms part of a wider pattern of scrutiny and pushback against data centre expansion at federal, state and city level across the United States, driven by mounting public concern over the strain such facilities place on electricity supplies and water resources.
- Texas governor orders audit of new data centre proposals
- ERCOT reviewing over 474 gigawatts of connection requests
- Texas already has 521 data centres, second only to Virginia
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Texas has become one of the biggest hubs for data centres in the United States, second only to Virginia, largely because of its relatively loose regulations and available land. These facilities, which power everything from cloud computing to artificial intelligence, consume huge amounts of electricity and water, and demand for new sites has grown so fast that grid operator ERCOT is now handling connection requests worth far more power than the state currently produces.
Governor Greg Abbott, along with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT, oversees how the state's electricity grid is managed and how new large power users are connected to it. The audit he has ordered will require data centre developers to disclose who owns and finances their projects, how much power and water they need, and what steps they are taking to avoid harming local residents.
The issue matters because Texas's power grid operates largely independently from the rest of the country and has faced reliability problems before, including major failures during extreme weather. A wave of new data centres competing for electricity and water raises questions about whether the grid can cope, and reflects a wider debate playing out across the US over how to balance the growth of the tech industry against the needs of local communities.
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Originally published by Engadget as “Texas governor orders audit of new data centers after realizing over 400 gigawatts of power is a lot”.