ERCOT targets 25MW+
ERCOT asked every data center of 25 MW or more seeking interconnection for impact data by October 12, the governor ordered penalties for data centers that skipped the state water survey, and the attorney general opened an investigation into the Blueprint site in Taylor.
The state spent the week asking data centers to account for themselves. ERCOT posted a request for information on September 14 addressed to every data center of 25 MW or more pursuing interconnection, covering tax benefits, on-site generation, water, noise and ownership, with submissions due October 12. The same day Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board to enforce the water-use survey against data centers that did not file, with a progress report due to his office by October 14. On September 17 Attorney General Ken Paxton said his office is investigating whether the Blueprint site in Taylor is bound by a 1999 parkland trust.
What the answers will be used for is less clear. ERCOT's page does not say whether a response is mandatory or what happens to a developer that does not file, and some coverage describing the deadline as a condition of interconnection goes further than the page does. The governor's directive names no facility. Paxton's investigation has made no finding. Fort Worth is drafting a 250 foot residential setback and required noise studies, and none of it is adopted.
The filings did not wait. Digital Realty filed for an 80 MW, $300 million building on its Garland campus, DataBank for a $425 million building at Red Oak, and two registrations at Cedar Creek add $1.2 billion, all state-form estimates with target dates. Crusoe raised $3.9 billion and named Abilene as the platform it will scale. Oracle said it has backed more than 1.7 GW of Texas wind, and ENGIE agreed to supply up to 568 MW for Oracle's Texas operations.
ERCOT wants to know who owns the load, and it has not said what happens to a developer that stays silent.
The water survey now has an enforcement order behind it.
The Taylor fight reached the attorney general.
Fort Worth put a number on distance.
Cipher's 3.2 GW now has a site map, and two-thirds of it is Studied Load. Cipher Digital broke its conditional Batch Zero classifications down by site.
Three companies are paying for Colorado City's water, and Cipher says its site takes none of it.
Digital Realty's Garland filing is the only one of the week's three large permits to carry a megawatt figure.
DataBank's next Red Oak building is filed without a capacity.
Two more Cedar Creek buildings are registered, and neither filing names EdgeConneX.
SB Energy's Austin campus is a data center in its SEC filing and a research center to the city.
Crusoe raised $3.9 billion and pointed at Abilene.
Oracle's Texas wind came in two announcements, and neither names a wind project.
Meta's seventh Apex contract lands in Gonzales County with no data center attached.
Kizer is marketing land and a capacity estimate, not a project.
The count went up again, and it rests on one article.
Sep 16Kizer Holdings opens nearly 500,000 acres to data center development and markets two Randall County sites at up to 1.5 GW ↗EIN Presswire
Sep 14DataBank files for DFW15, a $425 million building on its Red Oak campus ↗The Real Deal
Sep 14Digital Realty files for an 80 MW, $300 million data center on its Garland campus ↗The Real Deal
Sep 14SB Energy's SEC filing says its former 3M campus in Austin is leased primarily for data centers, as construction begins ↗Austin Free Press
Sep 18UT Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology counts 766 Texas data centers, operating and planned, as of August 2026 ↗Voz Media
Sep 17ENGIE agrees to supply up to 568 MW of Texas wind power for Oracle ↗PR Newswire
Sep 16Meta signs a 144 MW solar contract with Apex Clean Energy for a Gonzales County project ↗POWER Magazine
Sep 15Oracle backs more than 1.7 GW of Texas wind generation to match its Texas AI data centers' use ↗Oracle
Sep 14Cipher, Fluidstack and Anthropic put $10 million into Colorado City's water system ↗GlobeNewswire
Sep 17Crusoe raises $3.9 billion in Series F funding and names its Abilene campus as the model it will scale ↗GlobeNewswire
Sep 14Loenbro buys Texas electrical contractor Prism Electric in its largest deal ↗Dealroom
Sep 17Paxton opens an investigation into whether the Blueprint data center site in Taylor is bound by a 1999 parkland trust ↗Office of the Texas Attorney General
Sep 15Cipher splits its 3.2 GW of conditional Batch Zero classifications into 1.1 GW Base Load and 2.1 GW Studied Load ↗Blockspace
Sep 14Abbott orders the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that skipped the water survey ↗Houston Public Media
Sep 12Fort Worth drafts a 250 foot residential setback and required noise studies for data centers ↗City of Fort Worth
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