Texas Governor Abbott halted new data center connections to the state's power grid, citing overwhelming demand with 474 GW of interconnection queue requests, and ordering a full audit of the interconnection process.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates most of the state's power grid, to conduct a comprehensive audit of data center projects currently seeking to connect to the ERCOT grid. The audit must be completed before any projects moving through ERCOT's interconnection process can be approved, and projects that fail to comply with requirements set by state regulators will be denied a connection to the grid.
As part of the audit, regulators must collect information about each project's expected electricity demand, how much power it plans to generate itself, its water use, and any tax incentives or other public subsidies it may receive. Developers will also have to explain how they plan to reduce noise, light pollution, traffic, and other effects on nearby communities.
The move reflects growing concerns as nearly every major tech company—including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI—pours billions of dollars into building infrastructure to train and run their competing AI models. Texas has become a particularly attractive destination for these projects. OpenAI's flagship Stargate data center is located in Abilene, and the Data Center Map currently lists more than 500 facilities across the state, second only to Virginia, with that number likely to grow significantly in coming years.
The scale of pending requests is substantial: ERCOT is currently reviewing more than 474 gigawatts worth of requests from large electricity users seeking to connect to the grid. That is more than five times ERCOT's record peak demand, and roughly 90% of those requests come from data centers. While many proposals will likely never be built, even a fraction of that proposed demand could place significant pressure on the state's power grid.
"Our top priority is to protect Texans' safety and quality of life," Gov. Abbott said in a press release. "Any project that fails to comply with the requirements set forth by the PUCT and ERCOT, and by state law, must be denied connection to the Texas grid. Simply put, Texans must come first."
The order coincides with growing backlash from local residents worried about the strain these massive facilities could place on water supplies, power grids, and their communities. In some cases, that opposition has already helped defeat proposed data center projects. While some lawmakers have called for a national moratorium on the construction or expansion of new AI data center projects, President Donald Trump's administration has taken a largely hands-off approach to regulating data center construction, with Trump arguing that unfettered AI development is important for national security. "You have to convince your communities how great these things are," he recently told an audience when discussing data centers. "You can't fight it. You have to go with it."