Texas energy regulators and industry groups are warning that the state's pauses on artificial intelligence data center interconnections and on a 765 kilovolt transmission buildout could produce rolling blackouts and slow industrial growth.
ERCOT now has nearly 2,000 requests in its interconnection queue, roughly 90 percent of them data centers, representing 466,497 megawatts of demand. That figure is more than five times the grid's peak record set on July 22. Governor Greg Abbott's order this month pausing data center connection approvals pending an audit forced ERCOT to suspend its Batch Zero Interconnection Study, the batched review process that had been scheduled to finish in April. ERCOT officials told the House Committee on State Affairs that several projects have already withdrawn because of the delay. The grid operator expects to finish the audit in December.
Separately, a bipartisan group of 30 state representatives asked the Public Utility Commission to deny five pending 765 kilovolt transmission applications, and the State Office of Administrative Hearings recommended rejecting one West Texas segment. Public Utility Commission chair Thomas Gleeson said inaction carries its own risk because power has to reach Permian Basin customers, and an ERCOT senior vice president testified in July that rolling blackouts are possible in the Permian by next summer.
Todd Staples of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, Mark Bell of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, and Bryn Baker of the Corporate Energy Buyers Association each warned that traditional manufacturers and refiners sit in the same queue as speculative data center projects. University of Texas at Austin researchers Jim Henson and Jacob Bradt framed the reversal as election-season politics colliding with grid planning.
Source: The Texas Tribune - https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/24/texas-765-transmissions-lines-data-centers-pauses-delays/