The 75 megawatt line
Prometheus plans a 1.5 GW islanded campus near Pecos, KUT puts the pause's boundary at 75 MW with on-site power plants outside it, and Global Energy Monitor counts 77 GW of Texas gas generation in development aimed at data centers.
Prometheus Hyperscale plans to skip the conventional ERCOT interconnection process for the first phase of a 1.5 GW campus near Pecos, and to run it as an electrical island on pipeline natural gas instead. No binding tenant has been announced. It is the week's plainest statement of where Texas development has gone: around the grid, not through it.
KUT reported on August 27 what the pause does and does not reach. It applies to data centers drawing at least 75 MW that need ERCOT approval to connect, about 300 projects. Facilities with their own on-site power plants are not covered. Verification is not expected to finish until December and interconnection studies are pushed to April 2027. None of that is a published state rule, only KUT's account. ERCOT itself told the PUCT that 17 large loads, about 6.6 GW, have cleared stability review with none holding final energization approval, and intends to notify providers of conditional Batch Zero classifications by August 31.
The workaround got measured. Global Energy Monitor now counts about 122 GW of gas generation in development in Texas, up roughly 41.4 GW in six months, with about 77 GW of it intended primarily to serve data centers. Those are announced, pre-construction and construction stages together: developer intent, not plant.
The projects that already have power kept moving. Microsoft accepted Horizon 1, IREN's first 50 MW at Childress, on August 13, the first of four phases under a five year, $9.7 billion contract. Lancium confirmed a strategic investment from NVIDIA, amount undisclosed, across a portfolio it puts at 4 GW under lease and more than 15 GW of powered land.
A developer said out loud that it will not wait for the queue.
ERCOT put a number on the advanced tier of the queue. 17 loads, about 6.6 GW.
The next dated milestone is August 31, and it is a conditional one.
The pause has a boundary, and KUT puts it at 75 MW.
Someone put a number on the way around the grid. 122 GW.
IREN delivered on the date it gave.
Google's Panhandle campus has a name and an acreage and nothing else.
Fort Worth approved a campus while it is still writing the rules for campuses.
Austin started writing data centers into its development code.
Lubbock took the petition and set a date. September 8. The city council accepted a citizen petition for an 18-month moratorium on data center development and set a hearing on it.
The opposition moved from associations to producers, and the polling did not move at all.
Soluna closed on the land, then contracted the other kind of load.
A workforce contract is the first hard sign of an unnamed hyperscaler near Pecos.
The audit got bigger, and the water estimate got indirect.
Two statewide positions were taken, and neither of them is law.
Aug 26Soluna and Bitdeer enter 28 MW agreement at Project Kati 1 ↗Soluna
Aug 24Prometheus' 1.5 GW Pecos plan tests private power ↗Data Center Knowledge
Aug 24Soluna closes purchase of 397 acres for Project Dorothy 3 ↗Soluna
Aug 13IREN delivers first 50MW Microsoft AI cloud deployment at Childress ↗Yahoo Finance
Aug 25US gas power proposals tied to data centers nearly double in six months ↗Global Energy Monitor
Aug 21ERCOT says it plans to complete governor's data center audit by December ↗KERA News
Aug 21ERCOT aims to complete Texas governor's data center audit by December ↗Utility Dive
Aug 21Market Notice M-A080326-02, revised Batch Zero process and conditional classifications ↗ERCOT
Aug 20PUCT meeting, August 20, 2026 ↗ERCOT
Aug 27After years of hardship, Texas agriculture faces a new threat: data centers ↗The Texas Tribune
Aug 26Target Hospitality secures new multi-year contract expected to generate approximately $250 million of revenue to support a top-five hyperscaler data center project ↗Target Hospitality
Aug 25Fort Worth approves plan for $10B data center campus ↗Bisnow
Aug 27Abbott's data center pause skips on-site power plants and mid-size sites ↗KUT
Aug 27City Council regular meeting agenda, August 27, 2026 (Item 61) ↗City of Austin
Aug 27Austin council moves toward data center rules and possible bans ↗KUT
Aug 26Lubbock City Council accepts data center petition, sets September 8 hearing ↗KCBD
Aug 25Fort Worth council approves amended data center site plan ↗Fort Worth Weekly
Aug 25New polls show data centers issue toxic ↗San Angelo LIVE!
Aug 25Texas lawmakers press on data center water usage ↗KERA News
Aug 24Austin leaders poised to ban large data centers, tighten regulations for smaller facilities ↗Community Impact
Aug 24AG Ken Paxton unveils four-point Texas data center plan ↗Dallas Express
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