Texas Governor Greg Abbott Pauses All Data Center Construction in the State

Data centers are popping up all over Texas and it looks the Governor has paused any new construction until new audits have concluded.

Currently Virginia has the most operational data centers at 320 (as of April this past year). Texas currently has 212 operational data centers. However, data center expansion is rampant in Texas right now. We have 140 under construction and another 610 that have been announced. If all those data centers were fully operational. Texas would be the data center hub of America.

Governor Greg Abbott Announces Pause on Any New Data Center Construction

With the construction of data centers, we have heard about the energy and water consumption. Looks like a new audit process will be going in place before any further data centers are added to the Texas grid. Apparently the issue the Governor's office is having is with the lack of transparency when it comes to certain data centers water and power usage. 377 companies were asked to fill out a survey about their data centers. The state of Texas has received 28 back. Hence the pause on any new data center construction until an audit is done by ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and PUCT (Public Utility Commission of Texas).

What Will Data Centers Have to Do to Pass the Audit?

Data centers to begin new construction will have to provide the following information

• Information on tax breaks they will receive
• Power use and generation
• Water use and cooling operations
• Efforts to reduce impacts on local communities
• Who is the Ownership of the facility

Abbott’s letter to the PUCT and ERCOT directs them to conduct the audit on all data centers advancing through ERCOT’s interconnection queue, or the line for energy intensive projects seeking connection to the electric grid.