Democratic wins in Texas, Ohio and Georgia on November 3 have put the electricity side of the data center boom under new scrutiny. Texas alone is expected to hold about a quarter of U.S. data center capacity by 2030, according to GLJ Research.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott halted grid approvals in August and barred state environmental permits for data centers in September, pending a grid audit. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas was reviewing about 474 GW of interconnection requests, more than five times its record peak load, and roughly 90% of that total came from data centers. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has called those steps political theater and wants an immediate halt to new projects until lawmakers strengthen community protections and end data center tax breaks.
Georgia is described as the most uncertain of the three states, with the likelier outcome a rewrite of rules rather than a freeze. Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governorship, ending more than 20 years of Republican control. Seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission were also on the ballot, though results were not available when the report was published, and those outcomes bear on rates and approvals.
Several utility deals are pending or recent. Georgia Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, filed a nuclear uprate agreement with Alphabet worth about $900 million in benefits, which awaits PSC approval. Equinix signed a 20-year take-or-pay agreement covering all grid costs for its Hampton project. Oglethorpe Power received a record $3.3 billion USDA loan that could indirectly serve data center demand. CBRE calls Atlanta the most active U.S. data center construction market.
Source: Yahoo Finance (republished from Investing.com) -- https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/texas-ohio-georgia-data-center-131624214.html