Texas grid planners are scrambling to keep up with a surge of new data centers. (Inside Climate News)
The spike: ERCOT is tracking 205 GW of large load interconnection requests, up from just 56 GW a year ago. More than 70% are data centers, many seeking to connect by 2030. Some individual sites are requesting over 1 GW each.
The challenge: These massive, fast-moving projects are overwhelming a planning system built for slower, predictable growth.
The fix: ERCOT may speed up interconnections for companies that agree to curtail power use during grid stress and is exploring ways to study multiple large projects at once. Still, regulators warn that ensuring reliability—and avoiding cascading outages when data centers disconnect—will take major transmission upgrades and careful coordination.