Texas is tripling down on the construction of AI data centers, at any cost.
But there’s a glaring problem that’s grinding construction plans to a halt: a woefully inadequate power grid that won’t be able to support all of these new facilities.
As The Texas Tribune reports, governor Greg Abbott announced a moratorium for all new data center approvals on Monday. It certainly wasn’t a response to the spiking bipartisan opposition to data centers that has gripped the nation. Instead, Abbott’s goal was to give regulators time to perform an audit on how to hook up new data centers to the Texas grid without melting it down.
“Our top priority is to protect Texans’ safety and quality of life,” Abbott said in a statement.
The scale of the proposed data center buildout is staggering. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) alone has a queue of over 1,800 projects that would draw over 474 gigawatts of electricity. According to the regulator, that’s over five times the Texas grid’s record for peak demand.
The news highlights major headwinds in the Lone Star State’s efforts to go all-in on AI, a construction frenzy that’s now experiencing a brutal collision with reality. Even before the AI gold rush, the state’s grid has struggled to keep households warm during unusually cold winters. Major cryptocurrency mining operations have also risked bringing the grid to its knees.
Other states have resisted the boom, with New York imposing the country’s first statewide ban last month.
As the Tribune points out, both the public and state officials are being kept in the dark about who exactly is applying to build data centers in Texas, as well as how many are seeking approval. So far, the newspaper estimates there to be at least 335 data centers in the state and at least 248 planned ones. Hundreds more are in earlier development stages, queuing up to be allowed to be hooked up to the grid.
Many existing data centers are using on-site power generation, including pollutant-spewing diesel generators, to bypass the grid entirely.
The news comes as a vocal opposition to data center buildouts, driven by spiking electricity prices, dwindling water supplies, noise pollution, and an increase in emissions, continues to grow.
Some lawmakers have been pushing for tighter rules to keep all of these negative side effects in check. For now, many of them appear to be flying blind as companies race to open new facilities. Abbott claimed this week that some data centers failed to comply with a regulator survey for water and power usage, inspiring the most recent audit.
According to Texas state representative Brad Buckley, only 28 out of 377 companies that were surveyed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) issued responses, which he called “pretty pathetic” earlier this year.
More on data centers: The Number of Regular People Being Arrested for Protesting Data Centers Is Astounding