Texas Halts Data Center Grid Connections Amid Surging AI Power Demand

Texas state officials and grid operator ERCOT have issued a temporary halt on approving new electrical connections for large-scale data centers. The emergency moratorium comes as requests from AI hyperscalers threaten to overwhelm grid capacity, raising concerns over reliability and residential energy costs during peak summer heatwaves. Governor Greg Abbott called for comprehensive audits of proposed facility power demands and transmission impact assessments. With data center projects requesting tens of gigawatts of dedicated capacity across the state, regulators are demanding that developers co-locate dedicated generation assets or utility-scale storage systems before accessing the public grid.