How to Get Power for a New Data Center in Texas

01The short version

A data center is, electrically, one of the largest customers a utility will ever connect. A single AI campus can want 300, 500 or 1,000 megawatts. For scale, ERCOT says one megawatt can serve about 250 Texas homes on a hot summer day.¹¹ A 500 MW campus wants roughly what 125,000 homes use at peak, delivered every hour of the year, at a single address.

Getting that much power to one spot in Texas is a sequence of gates. You find land near strong transmission. You sign up with the utility that owns the wires there. You put money down, the utility and ERCOT study whether the grid can carry your load, and ERCOT tells you how many megawatts you can have and when. You sign a standard agreement, post more security, pay for your own connection equipment, and wait while a substation (and sometimes new transmission lines) gets built. Then you prove your facility will behave on the grid, register, and energize in steps.

Since 2025 that sequence has been rewritten. Senate Bill 6 gave the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) authority to standardize how large loads connect, what they pay, and when they can be curtailed.¹⁹ ERCOT replaced its one-project-at-a-time studies with a batch study that looks at every eligible project together.³ And in the second half of 2026 the state paused new data center interconnections and permits while it audits data centers' grid use, water use and community impacts.

Plan for three to six years from site search to full load on a large greenfield campus, with the power timeline, not the building, setting the pace. The rest of this guide explains each gate, what it costs, and where projects stall.

02Why power is the hard part

The building is rarely the bottleneck. Shell, cooling and fit-out typically take about two years. The bottleneck is that Texas has far more requests for power than it has grid to deliver it.

ERCOT says it is tracking roughly 474 GW of large loads seeking to connect, with about 90% of that from data centers.⁴ That is not a realistic forecast and ERCOT does not treat it as one. ERCOT's 2025 long-term load forecast report found that sites reached on average 49.8% of the megawatts they had requested, and in its April 2026 forecast filing ERCOT cautioned against planning on raw request totals.²³ Many requests are duplicates: one developer shopping the same campus to several utilities, or several developers chasing the same parcel.

Even approved load is not yet running at full size. Of the 9,456 MW of large loads ERCOT has approved to energize, the sum of their individual monthly peaks was about 4.1–4.4 GW in July through September 2026.²² Another 17 data center and crypto loads, about 6.6 GW of planned peak demand, have finished every ERCOT step except approval to energize, and are held by the 2026 pause.³⁵

That speculation is exactly what the 2025 and 2026 reforms target. Nearly every new requirement in this guide, from site-control proof to per-megawatt collateral, exists to make a queue position cost something so that only serious projects hold one.

The grid side is growing too. In April 2025 the PUCT approved a Permian Basin plan built on Texas's first 765-kV lines, three new import paths, with individual line routes certified separately; ERCOT's board endorsed the rest of a 765-kV backbone in December 2025.³⁰ Those lines take years to permit and build. In the meantime, available capacity at any specific substation is what decides your project's fate.

03Who you will deal with

Texas is unusual. About 90% of the state's load sits on the ERCOT grid, which is mostly isolated from the rest of the country and regulated in Austin rather than by FERC. The rest of Texas belongs to other regional grids. Which one your site sits on changes nearly everything that follows.

ERCOT Texas versus the rest of Texas

Outside ERCOT, four pieces of Texas sit on other grids: far West Texas around El Paso (El Paso Electric, Western Interconnection), much of the Panhandle and South Plains (Xcel Energy's SPS, in the Southwest Power Pool), parts of Northeast Texas (SWEPCO, also SPP), and Southeast Texas around Beaumont (Entergy Texas, MISO). Those utilities are vertically integrated: they own generation and wires and sell you power under a tariff. Their large-load processes follow their own tariffs and their regional operator's rules, not ERCOT's batch study, though the PUCT still regulates their rates.

Inside ERCOT, the split that matters is competitive versus non-competitive territory. In the areas served by the big investor-owned wires companies, you choose your electricity supplier. In most electric cooperative and municipal utility areas (CPS Energy in San Antonio, Austin Energy, and most co-ops), you buy from the utility. SB 6's standards apply to these utilities too, but the law lets co-ops and city utilities add their own requirements on top.¹⁹

04How power reaches the racks

It helps to picture the physical chain before getting into paperwork. Every requirement in the process maps to one of these links.

Large campuses almost always connect at transmission voltage (typically 138 kV or 345 kV in ERCOT) rather than to a distribution feeder. That makes your wires company a Transmission Service Provider (TSP) and puts you in ERCOT's large-load process. Loads that connect to a distribution system work through a Distribution Service Provider (DSP), but at 75 MW and above they land in the same ERCOT process.¹

The thresholds that matter:

• 75 MW or more at one site: a "Large Load." Triggers ERCOT's large-load interconnection process and the PUCT's SB 6 standards, including study fees, security, and curtailment obligations.⁷
• Large Computational Load (LCL): a Large Load where at least half the site demand is computing, meaning data centers and crypto mines (earlier drafts called it a Large Electronic Load). These carry extra ride-through requirements.¹⁷¹⁸
• 25 to 75 MW: "medium" loads. Below the main process, but ERCOT included data centers of 25 MW and up in its 2026 community-impact survey, which covered 214 medium data centers.¹⁰¹¹

The 75 MW test also applies to expansions: a site crossing 75 MW for the first time, or an existing 75 MW+ site adding another 75 MW or more, is treated like a new interconnection.⁷

05Site selection and land

In Texas today, power is the site-selection criterion. Land, fiber, water and labor still matter, but a parcel with good fiber and no available transmission capacity is a parcel with a five-year wait.

What to screen for

• Distance to high-voltage lines and substations. Proximity to an existing 345 kV line or a substation with spare transformer capacity is worth more than almost any other attribute. Each mile of new line is cost, right-of-way and permitting time.
• Headroom on the local grid. A substation can be close and still saturated by other large loads already allocated there. Utilities and consultants can run informal capacity screens before you file anything. Ask for them.
• Who the utility is. Competitive versus co-op or city territory changes your supply options, your contract, and sometimes your speed. Non-ERCOT parts of Texas follow a different process entirely.
• Congestion and pricing. ERCOT prices vary by location. A West Texas site near wind and solar may see cheap midday prices and transmission congestion; a site near Dallas or Houston may see higher but steadier prices.
• Gas supply. If you might build on-site generation, a nearby high-pressure pipeline with firm capacity is now a first-tier criterion.
• Water. Evaporative cooling needs large volumes. Local water availability is now under explicit state scrutiny (see Permits).
• Community and local rules. Setback ordinances, noise limits and local opposition have become real schedule risks. The Governor's September 2026 conditions explicitly include compliance with local setback ordinances.⁷

Site control is now a regulatory requirement

Land used to be something you locked up after power looked promising. Not anymore. Texas rules now require proof that you control the site before you can hold a place in line. ERCOT's 2026 planning compliance plan, for example, counts a large load in its forecast only with a deed or a lease running at least five years past the expected peak-demand date.³⁷ The 2026 audit went further, asking projects to prove readiness with deeds, leases and permits.¹¹

SB 6 also requires you to disclose whether you have substantially similar requests pending elsewhere in Texas.³⁸ Multi-site shopping is still legal, but it is no longer invisible, and each request now carries its own fee and collateral.

06Your utility and the first agreement

Your formal entry point is the wires company that serves the site. You do not apply to ERCOT directly. The utility (TSP or DSP) is your sponsor and submits your project into ERCOT's process.

Early conversations

Before anything formal, utilities typically hold pre-application meetings, discuss feasible points of interconnection, and give a rough sense of what upgrades a site would need. Many now charge for engineering studies even at this stage. CPS Energy, for example, has started charging fees for large-load engineering studies.³⁹

The intermediate agreement (the SB 6 entry ticket)

Under the PUCT's final rule, adopted September 18, 2026, nothing gets studied until you sign an intermediate agreement with the utility and do four things:⁷

1. Pay a $100,000 study fee. The PUCT dropped the tiered fees and the non-refundable $50,000-per-MW charge it had proposed in March.⁸
2. Submit technical disclosures attested by a company officer: requested peak demand, ramp schedule, equipment, backup generation and similar details.
3. Post financial security of $50,000 per MW of requested peak demand. For a 300 MW request, that is $15 million before any study starts.
4. Provide site control evidence: a deed, a lease running at least five years past the date the load reaches its requested peak, or a signed purchase or lease option, plus disclosure of the state and local approvals still needed.⁶⁶

Once that is done, the utility has 60 days to contact ERCOT to start your study.⁷ False or unsupported disclosures are not a paperwork issue; the rule allows penalties up to losing allocated transmission capacity.⁷

Engineering models are part of the application

ERCOT requires detailed electrical models of how your facility behaves, including dynamic models showing how it responds to faults and voltage dips. These were a hard eligibility gate for Batch Zero: projects that did not submit dynamic models by the deadline were excluded.⁴ Your electrical engineer and your UPS and power-electronics vendors need to be involved from the start, not after the study.

07ERCOT's batch study

Until 2026, each large load got its own study, usually performed by the utility and reviewed by ERCOT. The problem: whenever a new project showed up nearby, earlier studies could become invalid and need to be redone. With hundreds of projects landing in the same areas, that loop never ended.⁴

The fix is a batch (cluster) study. ERCOT gathers every eligible request, studies them together against the grid's actual capability, and allocates megawatts by year. The capacity that comes out of a study is reserved, which prevents endless restudies.⁴ ERCOT describes itself as the first U.S. grid operator to use a batch process to connect large loads.³ The PUCT approved the framework on June 18, 2026.³

Batch Zero: the transition batch

"Batch Zero" is the one-time first batch for projects already in the pipeline. Its eligibility deadlines fell in July 2026. Projects were sorted into three groups:³⁴²

• Base load: projects that had already completed prior individual studies and met a higher bar. They are modeled as existing background load.
• Studied load: eligible projects that get evaluated in the batch and receive year-by-year allocations.
• Excluded: projects that missed requirements. They wait for a future batch.

In September 2026, ERCOT conditionally included 362 projects in Batch Zero (204 as base load, about 66 GW; 158 as studied load, about 126–128 GW) and excluded 373 projects totaling about 302 GW, with final classifications due after the audit.⁵

What the study gives you: LPC and MPC

Each studied project receives two numbers per year for the first six years:⁶

• LPC (Low Power Consumption): the firm megawatts you can draw from the grid with no obligation to curtail.
• MPC (Maximum Power Consumption): your full requested peak.

If you made no special election, you are capped at your LPC. (The PCLR election described next is available to studied loads.) The gap between the two is where the interesting options live.

The PCLR option: trade flexibility for speed

A Provisional Controllable Load Resource (PCLR) can energize above its LPC, up to its MPC, if it agrees to follow ERCOT's dispatch instructions at all times, including instructions to cut consumption. ERCOT does not guarantee you can actually run at MPC in real time.⁶ You stay in this mode until an exit date set by the study, when transmission upgrades make the capacity firm, and during that time you cannot sell ancillary services.⁴⁰

Whether PCLR makes sense depends on your workload. AI training runs that can checkpoint and pause, or crypto-style flexible loads, may live comfortably with curtailment. A colocation facility with uptime SLAs to tenants generally cannot, unless on-site generation covers the gap.

For Batch Zero, the PCLR election was a two-step commitment: a notarized declaration of intent with the July eligibility package (including the minimum LPC you would accept each year), then acceptance of the actual results with your signed interconnection agreement after the study.⁴¹ If the grid cannot reliably support even that minimum in a given year, the project's allocation for that year is zero.⁶⁰ PCLR obligations also transfer automatically to a buyer in an acquisition or financing.⁶

After Batch Zero: Batch 1 and beyond

The permanent process runs recurring batches. ERCOT described clustering requests roughly every six months, and before the audit had planned to open Batch 1 applications in summer 2027.⁴² Treat that date as provisional until ERCOT confirms the post-audit schedule. A new project that starts today should plan to enter Batch 1 or a later batch, and should start the land, model and agreement work now so it is ready when the window opens.

08What it costs to get in line

The SB 6 rule turned interconnection into a staged financial commitment. Here is how the money moves under 16 TAC §25.194.⁷

The Standard Large Load Interconnection Agreement (SLLIA)

After ERCOT allocates capacity, you sign the SLLIA, update your disclosures, and true up security to the greater of $50,000 per MW of contracted peak or your allocated share of transmission upgrade costs.⁷ The PUCT is writing a separate rule for the standard agreement itself, which will fold in the disclosure, financial and technical requirements from the other SB 6 rules.⁴³

Contribution in aid of construction (CIAC)

You pay the utility up front for the facilities built specifically to connect you, such as the switching station and the line tap. Under the rule, the utility invoices those costs before incurring them, and the payment is not refundable.⁷⁴⁴ For a transmission-level campus these direct connection costs are site-specific and can be substantial, especially if a new line is needed.

Minimum billing demand: paying for capacity you reserved

The SLLIA obligates you to pay a large load minimum billing demand under the utility's transmission cost recovery factor.⁷ In plain terms, you pay transmission charges based on capacity you contracted for, even if your actual usage ramps up slowly. The PUCT's July 2026 proposal in Project 58000 floated fixing that minimum for 20 years and asked whether it should phase down or ratchet instead.⁴⁵ This is one to watch closely, because it determines what an under-used campus costs to carry.

4CP to 12CP: the transmission-charge rule is changing

ERCOT-area transmission costs have long been allocated using "four coincident peak" (4CP): your share is based on your demand during the single highest 15-minute interval in each of June through September. Large flexible customers have saved heavily by dropping load during those intervals. SB 6 required the PUCT to review whether 4CP still assigns costs fairly and to amend its rules by December 31, 2026.²⁰ In July 2026 the PUCT proposed, in Project 58000, to replace 4CP with a 12-coincident-peak (12CP) method measured on 30-minute intervals, one peak in every month, and to add a large-load tariff rule (new §25.252) with a minimum billing demand lasting at least 20 years. That minimum is the greater of contracted peak, the prior year's highest demand, or 12CP demand. Comments closed August 11, and the PUCT has said it expects a final decision in December 2026.⁴⁵⁶² If you are modeling operating costs that assume 4CP avoidance, treat that savings as likely to shrink or disappear.

09Building the substation

Once your capacity is allocated and the agreement is signed, the physical work begins. The utility designs and builds the facilities on its side; you build your customer substation and everything behind the meter. If network upgrades or a new line are needed, those go through ERCOT's Regional Planning Group and, for new lines, a PUCT certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN). The statute sets a 180-day decision deadline for most CCN cases, but routing, landowner notice and construction add much more.

Long-lead equipment is the real critical path

The single biggest physical constraint right now is equipment. Large power transformers are custom-built, depend on specialized electrical steel, and are mostly imported.

Because those waits now exceed a typical study cycle, serious developers place reservation orders or slot deposits for transformers and switchgear before their allocation is known, accepting the risk of owning equipment for a project that may change. Utilities face the same problem on their side of the meter, and some are buying substation transformers years ahead of specific projects.⁴⁷

Phased ramp

Very few campuses energize all at once. Your Load Commissioning Plan, agreed with the utility, sets out how many megawatts come online in each step and when. Batch study allocations are by year, and your building phases should be designed to match.³²

10On-site and co-located power

With grid timelines stretching, many Texas projects now plan to make some or all of their own power. Texas leads the nation in gas plants proposed for data centers, and roughly half of the gas generation under development in the state is expected to run off the grid, serving data centers directly.⁴⁸ The Stargate campus in Abilene, for example, pairs its ERCOT connection with permitted on-site gas generation, including aeroderivative turbines, which analysts expect could serve as primary power in early phases.⁴⁹

Withdrawal-Limited Private Use Networks

ERCOT's batch rules include a WLPUN pathway, sometimes called "bring your own generation." On-site generation and load operate together behind a hard limit on how much the site can pull from the grid at its single point of interconnection, with that limit set by the batch study.³⁴²⁶ Analysts note that loads with their own generation are treated more favorably in the batch process.⁵⁰ The trade is that you take on the generation, its fuel, and its permits.

Co-locating with an existing power plant

Putting a data center next to an existing plant and taking its output behind the meter was an attractive shortcut, and SB 6 made it a regulated one. New net-metering arrangements between a 75 MW+ load and a standalone generator that was already registered with ERCOT as of September 1, 2025 need an ERCOT study (up to 120 days) and PUCT approval (within 60 days after that).¹⁶ The PUCT approved its first arrangements under the new rule in spring 2026: a 265 MW data center beside a 265.5 MW wind farm in Armstrong County (April) and a 760 MW data center at a 1,099 MW gas plant in Freestone County (May). In each case the load must cut use or switch to backup, and the plant must return its output to the grid, within 30 minutes of an ERCOT instruction.⁶¹ A July 23, 2026 order (Docket 59220), covering a second data center at the Armstrong County wind site, went further. Emergency curtailment is not capped at the paired generator's output: the data center must disconnect fully from the ERCOT system on instruction during a transmission emergency, and it may not participate in ERCOT or utility demand response or ancillary service programs.¹⁵⁶⁵ New generation built specifically for a load is not subject to this pre-approval requirement.¹⁹

11Operating rules you sign up for

Connecting is not the end of your obligations. Several 2025–2026 rules govern how a large data center must behave once it is on the grid.

Emergency curtailment and backup generation

SB 6 requires you to disclose on-site backup generation that cannot export to the grid but can serve at least half your demand. During an energy emergency, ERCOT can give notice directing such customers to either run that backup generation or reduce load.²⁰ Separately, utilities must have a way to remotely curtail transmission-voltage customers during firm load shed, and large loads connected after December 31, 2025 must have the equipment to make that possible.¹⁹ ERCOT held a workshop on October 6, 2026 on the deployment mechanics and registration for SB 6 curtailment.⁵¹

Ride-through (NOGRR 282)

In several grid events, large computing loads dropped offline all at once when voltage dipped, which itself destabilizes the grid. ERCOT's NOGRR 282 requires Large Computational Loads to ride through defined voltage and frequency disturbances rather than trip. The PUCT approved it July 9, 2026 and it took effect August 1, 2026.⁵² This drives real design choices in your UPS, power-supply and protection settings, and some conventional low-voltage UPS designs struggle to comply.⁵³ Confirm your electrical design against the final NOGRR 282 tables before you buy equipment.

Large Load Demand Management Service

SB 6 also created a voluntary, paid program in which large loads bid to reduce demand ahead of an anticipated emergency. The PUCT proposed the rule (new 16 TAC §25.521) in August 2026.²¹ For loads that can flex, it may become a revenue line.

12Buying the electricity

Interconnection gets the wires to you. You still have to buy the energy that flows over them, and at data center scale the supply contract is one of the largest numbers in the operating budget. A steady 300 MW load uses about 2.6 million megawatt-hours a year.

In competitive ERCOT areas

If your site is in Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas or TNMP territory, you choose your supplier. Your bill has two parts: regulated delivery charges from the wires company (including transmission charges and any minimum billing demand), and the energy price from your Retail Electric Provider. Common structures include:

• Fixed price for a term: predictable, but the provider prices in risk premiums for load shape and volume swings.
• Index or block-and-index: buy a hedged block at a fixed price and float the rest on ERCOT real-time prices. Usually cheaper on average, with exposure to price spikes.
• Power purchase agreements: physical or virtual contracts with specific wind, solar, storage or gas plants, often paired with a retail contract to shape and deliver the power.
• Self-supply via a QSE: the largest buyers sometimes become, or hire, a Qualified Scheduling Entity and manage wholesale positions directly.

Flexibility has real value in ERCOT. Loads that can curtail during price spikes, participate in demand programs, or (while it lasts) manage 4CP intervals can lower their effective cost substantially. The flip side: if you are a PCLR, ERCOT's curtailment instructions will arrive whether or not they suit your hedge.

In co-op and city utility areas

CPS Energy, Austin Energy and most co-ops sell bundled power under their own tariffs, and SB 6 explicitly lets them impose requirements beyond the PUCT's.³⁸ Expect negotiated agreements with minimum bills, long terms, and sometimes special large-load rate classes; CPS, for instance, has discussed creating a separate large-load rate class.³⁹

Outside ERCOT

In El Paso Electric, SPS, SWEPCO and Entergy Texas territory, you contract with the integrated utility under its large-power tariffs and special contracts. Retail choice does not apply. El Paso Electric has proposed a 20-year minimum contract duration for large loads, one example of how long these commitments are becoming.⁵⁴

13Permits, water and taxes

Environmental permits

Data centers typically need TCEQ authorizations for backup generator air emissions, construction stormwater, and sometimes water rights or wastewater discharges. A campus with on-site gas generation needs air permits for a power plant. On September 21, 2026, the Governor directed TCEQ to halt issuing permits related to data center projects until ERCOT completes its review, and said no other state agency should advance data center approvals in the meantime.¹²¹³ TCEQ described the pause as covering air and water permits and authorizations for infrastructure directly supporting data centers.⁵⁵ An October 2026 FracTracker review of TCEQ records through October 16 found 11 construction stormwater approvals and 7 air authorizations recorded after the order, with 14 applications still in review. The Governor's office says no permits have been approved and that the pause covers approvals, not processing; TCEQ reported on its compliance in an October 19 letter.¹⁴⁵⁶

The Governor's letter tied resumed permitting to six conditions for data center sponsors: cover all dedicated grid infrastructure costs; show the project will lower, not raise, residential electric bills; complete the ERCOT and TWDB audits; show operations will not consume water communities need; file electricity and water use reports; and comply with local setback ordinances.⁷

Water

Water has become as politically sensitive as power. The Texas Water Development Board has surveyed data centers about water use for years, but response rates have been low: a June legislative hearing heard 17% for the 2025 survey, while TWDB put its response rate at about 30% as of August 2026.⁵⁷²⁹ On September 14, 2026 the Governor directed TWDB to enforce the reporting requirement and coordinate with ERCOT's audit, and on September 24 the Attorney General announced an investigation into non-responding facilities.²⁹ Failing to return the survey is a Class C misdemeanor and can make a facility ineligible for certain TCEQ water permits.²⁹⁵⁸

Practically, a credible water plan (closed-loop or air-cooled designs, reclaimed water, or contracted supply that does not compete with local needs) is now part of getting power, not just part of getting a building permit.

Tax incentives

Texas has offered a state sales and use tax exemption for qualifying data centers since 2013, covering equipment and the electricity used to operate the facility. Qualifying generally means at least $200 million of investment over five years, 100,000 square feet and 20 jobs.⁶³ The Senate Finance Committee projects the exemption will cost about $3.3 billion in the 2028–29 budget period, and the Comptroller's office told lawmakers that estimate is already outdated and the next one will likely be significantly higher. Of 20 recently audited projects, six were found noncompliant or withdrew.²⁸ At a July 27, 2026 hearing, legislators made clear the exemption, including its application to existing projects, will be a major target in the 2027 session.²⁷ The Governor's September 21 letter says he will work with the Legislature to eliminate state tax exemptions and economic development incentives for data center developments that do not meet his conditions.⁷ Local incentives (county abatements under Chapter 312, school district agreements under the JETI Act, and Chapter 380/381 agreements) remain available case by case.⁵⁹ Any pro forma built on today's incentives should carry a scenario without them.

14Commissioning and go-live

The last stretch is technical and unforgiving about deadlines.

1. Stability assessment (QSA). Before initial energization, a new large load must be included in ERCOT's stability assessment, which checks how new loads and large generators affect grid stability.³² It has run every three months. A revision (PGRR 146), recommended by ERCOT's Reliability and Operations Subcommittee in August and October 2026 and now pending at ERCOT's Technical Advisory Committee, would move it to every four months and rename it the "qualifying stability assessment," with a proposed effective date of September 1, 2027.³³ Missing a submission window can push energization back a full cycle.
2. Models and settings match the real equipment. If your as-built design differs materially from what was studied, ERCOT can refuse energization.³²
3. Registration and metering. Your facility is registered in ERCOT's systems, with settlement-quality metering and, for controllable loads, telemetry and dispatch capability.
4. Curtailment equipment tested. Remote disconnect capability for firm load shed must work.
5. Phased energization. Load comes online in the steps of your Load Commissioning Plan. Each step can face operating limits if studies show a stability concern.
6. Security release begins. At initial energization, 20% of your SLLIA security comes back.⁷

15A realistic timeline

Here is how the pieces overlap for a hypothetical 300 MW greenfield campus starting today. Your project could be faster with an available substation, or much slower if new transmission lines are needed.

The levers that actually shorten this: picking a site with existing capacity, being fully ready (land, models, collateral) when a batch window opens, ordering long-lead equipment early, designing the building in phases that match the yearly allocation, and considering PCLR or on-site generation to bridge years where firm capacity is short.

16Developer checklist

1. Confirm which grid and which utility serve each candidate site, and whether it is competitive, co-op or municipal territory.
2. Get informal capacity screens from the utility or an engineering consultant before committing to land.
3. Lock site control with a deed, a lease running at least five years past expected peak, or a signed purchase or lease option, with extensions tied to interconnection milestones.
4. Budget the SB 6 entry costs: $100,000 study fee plus $50,000 per MW in security at the intermediate agreement.
5. Engage your electrical engineer and UPS vendors early to produce dynamic models and a NOGRR 282 ride-through compliant design.
6. Decide your flexibility posture: firm only, PCLR, on-site generation (WLPUN), co-location, or a mix.
7. Disclose all similar requests elsewhere in Texas and any backup generation that can carry 50%+ of load.
8. Reserve transformer and switchgear production slots as early as your risk tolerance allows.
9. Prepare a water plan and file all required TWDB surveys for any existing facilities.
10. Plan permits (air, stormwater, local) and track the TCEQ pause and its conditions.
11. Model operating costs on a 12CP basis, with and without the sales-tax exemption, and with a 20-year minimum billing demand.
12. Line up electricity supply: retail structure, PPAs or QSE strategy, aligned to your ramp schedule.
13. Build a Load Commissioning Plan that matches your yearly MW allocation and construction phases.
14. Calendar every ERCOT and PUCT deadline; a missed commitment date counts as withdrawal.

17Glossary

4CP / 12CP

Four coincident peak: the method that allocates ERCOT transmission costs based on demand during the four summer monthly system peaks. Proposed to be replaced by 12CP, one peak every month (decision expected December 2026).

Batch study

ERCOT's cluster study that evaluates all eligible large loads together and allocates capacity by year.

CCN

Certificate of convenience and necessity. PUCT approval needed to build a new transmission line.

CIAC

Contribution in aid of construction. Up-front payment for facilities built specifically to connect you.

DSP / TSP

Distribution or Transmission Service Provider. The utility that owns the wires at your site and sponsors your request.

ILLE

Interconnecting Large Load Entity. ERCOT's term for the customer seeking to connect.

Large Computational Load

LCL. A 75 MW+ load where at least half the demand is computing. Formerly called a Large Electronic Load. Subject to NOGRR 282 ride-through rules.

LCP

Load Commissioning Plan. The agreed schedule of how many MW come online and when.

LPC / MPC

Low and Maximum Power Consumption. Your firm allocation and your full requested peak from the batch study.

PCLR

Provisional Controllable Load Resource. Runs above LPC subject to ERCOT dispatch until an exit date.

QSA

Quarterly Stability Assessment, required before initial energization. PGRR 146 (pending) would rename it the qualifying stability assessment and run it every four months.

QSE

Qualified Scheduling Entity. Registered party that schedules and settles energy in ERCOT's wholesale market.

REP

Retail Electric Provider. Sells electricity to customers in competitive ERCOT areas.

SB 6

Senate Bill 6 (2025). The law behind Texas's large-load interconnection, cost, co-location and curtailment rules.

SLLIA

Standard Large Load Interconnection Agreement. The binding agreement signed after capacity is allocated.

WLPUN

Withdrawal-Limited Private Use Network. On-site generation and load operating behind a cap on grid withdrawals.

18Sources

1. ERCOT, Large Load Integration
2. ERCOT, New Batch Connection Process for Large Electricity Users (June 18, 2026)
3. ERCOT, PUCT Approves ERCOT's Batch Zero Process (June 18, 2026)
4. ERCOT, Update to Texas Senate (July 29, 2026); also ERCOT Large Load Update (April 2026)
5. ERCOT Board, Batch Zero Update (September 2026)
6. Sheppard Mullin, PUCT Approves Batch Zero Framework
7. White & Case, PUCT sets financial commitments for data center interconnection as governor pauses permit approvals (Sept. 25, 2026)
8. Utility Dive, Texas PUC adopts softened rules on data center interconnection
9. Akin Gump, Texas Pauses Data Center Interconnections Pending Statewide Audit
10. Utility Dive, ERCOT aims to complete Texas governor's data center audit by December
11. Texas Public Radio (Houston Public Media), Gov. Abbott's data center audit is underway. Here's what ERCOT is asking.
12. Office of the Governor, Governor Abbott Directs TCEQ To Halt Data Center Permits (Sept. 21, 2026)
13. Bracewell, Governor Abbott Orders TCEQ to Pause All Permit Issuance
14. FracTracker Alliance, Texas Continued Data Center Permitting after the Governor's Pause
15. White & Case, PUCT affirms curtailment authority over co-located data centers
16. Texas Register, adoption of 16 TAC §25.205 (April 10, 2026)
17. ERCOT Board, NOGRR 282 and NPRR 1308 update (Feb. 2026, original "Large Electronic Load" term)
18. ERCOT, NPRR 1308 (Large Computational Load definition)
19. Bracewell, Texas Senate Bill 6 Ushers in Major Overhaul
20. K&L Gates, Senate Bill 6: A Texas Bill Impacting Large Load Development
21. Texas Register, proposed 16 TAC §25.521 Large Load Demand Management Service (Aug. 14, 2026)
22. ERCOT, Monthly Operational Overview, September 2026 (published Oct. 16, 2026)
23. Data Center Knowledge, ERCOT Warns Texas AI Power Boom May Not Materialize
24. Giga Energy, The constraints that cause lead time delays for data centers
25. Avanza Energy, on-site generation delivery timelines (citing CPS Energy, PowerGen 2026)
26. Beatty & Wozniak, Texas Data Center Review Delays Batch Zero and Puts Behind-the-Meter Power in Focus
27. Holland & Knight, Texas Data Center Tax Exemption Faces Serious Legislative Risk
28. Texas Public Radio, Texas lawmakers question billions in tax breaks for data centers
29. Foley & Lardner, Texas Escalates Data Center Oversight with Attorney General Water-Use Investigation
30. ERCOT, 2025 Report on Existing and Potential Electric System Constraints and Needs
31. DC Hub, ERCOT large load queue (compiling ERCOT monthly figures)
32. Zero Emission Grid, ERCOT Large Load QSA Explained
33. ERCOT ROS Report, PGRR 146 (Aug. 6, 2026)
34. Willkie Farr & Gallagher, ERCOT Approves Implementing New Batch Zero Process
35. ERCOT, Batch Zero Verification and Audit, PUCT presentation (Aug. 20, 2026)
36. Pexapark, Texas Audit Puts ERCOT's Batch Zero Process on Hold Until December
37. ERCOT comments on NPRR 1321, describing the 2026 RTP Compliance Plan site-control criteria
38. Mayer Brown, Important Texas Regulatory Updates for Data Centers
39. CPS Energy, large load presentation (March 2026)
40. Keentel Engineering, ERCOT PCLR Guide
41. EPE Consulting, New Pathway and Deadlines in ERCOT's Batch Zero: PCLR
42. Zero Emission Grid, ERCOT Batch Study Workshop #4 takeaways
43. PUCT, SB 6 implementation timeline (Project 58317, Sept. 2026)
44. PUCT Project 58481 rule text (draft)
45. PUCT Project 58000, proposal for publication (July 9, 2026)
46. AmCompute, Behind-the-Meter GPU Deployments (citing Cushman & Wakefield 2026 cost guide)
47. Reuters via AJOT, US power companies scramble to secure equipment
48. The Center Square via WFMZ, Surge in gas-fired power for data centers with Texas leading
49. Cleanview, Stargate Abilene behind-the-meter profile
50. Ascend Analytics, Can US Interconnection Queues Survive Data Center-Driven Load Growth?
51. ERCOT Market Notice M-A090226-01, SB 6 curtailment workshop
52. ERCOT, NOGRR 282
53. Crypto Briefing, medium-voltage UPS and large-load ride-through standards
54. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Large-load rate design webinar (Sept. 2026)
55. Houston Public Media, Abbott orders TCEQ to pause environmental permits
56. Landgate, Texas Paused Data Center Permits. A New Report Says the Paperwork Kept Moving.
57. KUT, Texas asked data centers to report their water use
58. Water Online, Governor Abbott Directs TWDB To Penalize Data Center Reporting Failures
59. Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter, comments to Senate Finance (July 27, 2026), on local incentive tools
60. Zero Emission Grid, ERCOT Batch Zero Workshop 6 summary
61. ERCOT, Trending Topic: Data Centers and Net Metering Arrangements (June 2026)
62. PUCT Chairman letter to the Governor on SB 6 implementation (July 17, 2026)
63. Texas Comptroller, Data Centers sales and use tax exemption
64. ERCOT, Monthly Operational Overview, July 2026 (preliminary 91,134 MW peak)
65. Utility Dive, Texas approves AI data center co-location next to wind farm with curtailment conditions
66. Colocation Scout, Texas PUC large load interconnection rule (effective date and site-control summary); Texas Register, Oct. 2, 2026 adopted rules

This guide is general information about a fast-moving regulatory area, current as of October 24, 2026. It is not legal, engineering or financial advice. Rules, dates and figures cited here may change; confirm current requirements with your utility, ERCOT, the PUCT and qualified counsel before making commitments. Illustrations marked as examples use hypothetical numbers.