Summary
- ERCOT is reviewing roughly 300 Batch Zero projects of at least 75MW and is targeting a 10 December audit filing.
- Texas has more than 474GW of large-load connection requests, with about 90% attributed to data centres.
- The review is intended to establish which projects are credible before grid studies and large-load energisation proceed.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is targeting 10 December to file the results of a verification and audit covering roughly 300 large data centre proposals before its Batch Zero interconnection process can advance.
The review follows an August directive from Texas governor Greg Abbott requiring ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas to audit data centres moving through the state’s grid-connection process before additional projects advance.
ERCOT is currently considering more than 474GW of large-load connection requests — more than five times the state’s record peak electricity demand. Around 90% of the requested capacity is attributed to data centres.
The queue cannot be treated as a straightforward forecast of future load. Individual projects may be duplicated, speculative, insufficiently financed, or entered at several possible sites while developers decide where to build.
Batch Zero was introduced to study the largest prospective users collectively rather than assess each project in isolation. Around 300 projects of at least 75MW are navigating that process.
The governor’s audit has moved verification ahead of the engineering study. Developers are being asked to demonstrate that projects are credible enough to consume grid-planning resources before ERCOT determines which transmission upgrades would be required to connect them.
The information requested extends beyond headline megawatts. Texas authorities are examining site control, project readiness, responsibility for infrastructure costs, onsite generation, water strategy, community effects, and ownership.
ERCOT will also carry out community-impact reviews for computational loads, including data centres and cryptocurrency facilities, at 25MW and above.
The 10 December date is a filing target rather than a guarantee that Batch Zero studies will be complete by then. ERCOT expects to submit a comprehensive verification and audit report to the PUCT ahead of the commission’s December meeting.
The underlying interconnection study will take longer. ERCOT has already said it will miss an earlier April 2027 target for completing the Batch Zero study and has not yet established a replacement date.
That distinction is important for developers. Passing the audit confirms that a project is sufficiently credible to remain in the process; it does not establish where or when the grid can supply the requested load.
The engineering study still has to determine network constraints, required transmission reinforcement, available capacity, and how upgrade costs should be allocated among projects.
Seventeen large loads, mostly data centres, are further advanced after completing stability assessments. Together, they represent approximately 6.6GW of peak demand expected to ramp over several years, but they remain subject to the wider verification process before energisation.
Texas represents an extreme version of a problem increasingly visible in other data centre markets. Grid queues have become a form of development option, allowing companies to hold positions while land, customers, financing, and project economics are still being resolved.
If every application is treated as firm demand, network companies risk planning expensive infrastructure for capacity that never materialises. If too many applications are discounted, genuinely viable projects may instead be left without sufficient grid reinforcement.
ERCOT’s audit attempts to move the process from stated intention towards evidence of project readiness. Only after that filtering exercise can the grid operator build a more defensible view of future demand.
The December filing should therefore reduce uncertainty around which projects remain in Batch Zero, but the timetable developers ultimately need — a credible date for power — will depend on the engineering work that follows.
