Texas has so many massive AI-related data centers in development that its grid operator is now considering reevaluating some projects that were previously approved.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas wants to examine projects unlikely to advance and provide greater clarity for when new sites are ready to connect to its system. Projects historically have been approved by utilities but in recent years Ercot has had to determine how this flood of new users can be served without breaking the grid.
Under an Ercot proposal, projects representing about 8.2 gigawatts of power consumption -- demand that would be satisfied by the equivalent of eight conventional nuclear reactors -- could be subject to new review, said Trudi Webster, a spokesperson for the grid.
Ercot acts as an air traffic controller governing the flow of power and making sure the grid isn't over taxed. Its proposal is a bet it can both remove kinks that have bogged down projects and not undermine the state's AI boom, which it has cultivated with business-friendly policies, abundant land, cheap power and the promise of limited regulation.
The grid operator previously had solicited feedback from dozens of companies including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. On Tuesday, it publicly unveiled its proposal with participants including developers, power plant operators and utilities. More than 700 people tuned it.
Ercot plans to review projects in batches to evaluate their collective impact to the grid instead of doing reviews per project that then can be subject to additional reviews. The aim is to integrate projects, make adjustments to the grid as needed, then move onto the next group. These batch studies will take place every six months, and to start Ercot has dubbed the most advanced projects as Batch Zero.
Jeff Billo, vice president of interconnection and grid analysis at Ercot, said it's imperative to move to a system where there is "one study to rule them all" because right now Ercot is on the verge of going back to developers that had cleared studies to say they have to reopen them because original assumptions have changed.
Katie Bell, energy program manager at Meta, said at the workshop some projects have been submitted for 18 months and still don't meet the criteria of those in Batch Zero. Bell raised concerns echoed by others about the need for transparency and projects facing even more delays.
The projects that could again be reviewed are a fraction of the staggering haul of those seeking connections -- more than 250 gigawatts as of Friday, or about three times its total capacity today.
Ercot plans to hold another workshop next week and then submit its plan later this month to state regulators for approval.