Texas halts 1,800 data center projects pending power audit; 474 GW pending requests 5x peak

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a moratorium on all new data center approvals through the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) until the state completes an audit of data center applicants' compliance with power and water disclosure requirements. The moratorium affects 1,800 projects currently awaiting grid-connection approval—90% of which are data centers—with a combined power demand of 474 gigawatts. That figure is five times ERCOT's current peak demand on record and far exceeds the agency's 2035 forecasts for data center power needs.

The review was triggered by compliance failures: PUCT asked 377 data center companies to submit information about tax breaks, power use, generation, water use, cooling operations, and facility ownership. Only 28 companies submitted the required data. Abbott's directive requires applicants to provide this information before connecting to the grid and threatens denial of connection for non-compliance. ERCOT is enforcing the audit before allowing any new projects to proceed. This is not a statewide ban—El Paso operates outside ERCOT's jurisdiction and can continue data center development—and projects that bring their own power generation are exempt.

For practitioners and operators, this signals acute grid capacity constraints becoming a regulatory gating factor in Texas, previously the most permissive jurisdiction for data center buildout. The 474 GW of pending requests dwarfs actual near-term demand and suggests either inflated applications or a major timing cliff as permitting accelerates. Companies betting on Texas capacity—including AI infrastructure plays—should expect multi-month delays and stricter transparency requirements. This may accelerate interest in alternative regions (Arizona, Oklahoma, Virginia) or distributed smaller-scale deployments with embedded power.