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Public story · 2026-08-05 · high
Data centers are 90% of the state's interconnection queue, and each project needs an audit of tax breaks, power draw and water use before it can proceed.
Why now: Abbott signed the order August 3, and ERCOT is already pausing its in-progress batch zero transmission study as a result.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered a freeze on new data center grid interconnection approvals statewide on August 3, per the Texas Tribune. The Public Utility Commission and ERCOT won't approve another project until it passes an audit disclosing the tax incentives it received, its power draw, its water consumption, and its plan to mitigate community impact.
Data centers make up 90% of the state's interconnection queue. This freeze covers nearly every hyperscaler with a Texas project on the roadmap. ERCOT is also postponing its in-progress 'batch zero' transmission planning study, the process that maps out how new power demand gets built into the grid.
Abbott's order doesn't include an end date. No agency has said when the audits will be reviewed, or how many projects are stuck behind them.
Texas built its AI data center pitch on being the easy state: cheap land, deregulated power, minimal permitting friction. An open-ended freeze with no published review timeline changes that math. Hyperscalers have to price in the risk that 'approved' stops meaning what it used to.
Watch whether Abbott's office or the PUC sets an actual reinstatement date. If this drags past a single quarter without one, expect reporting on which hyperscalers start re-routing capacity commitments to other grids.
The order landed August 3, while ERCOT's batch zero transmission study was already midstream.
Each link below shares sources, entities, or timing with this story.
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