Large Load Update

Kristi Hobbs from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reviewed the status of large load (greater than 75 MW) interconnections at the October 23, 2026, Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) open meeting. In the past 11 months, the amount of demand under study has nearly tripled—from just under 72 GW to over 200 GW. Data centers and crypto mining facilities account for over 80 percent of the interconnection requests and 80 of those projects project demand in excess of 1 GW. In-service dates range through the end of 2031, with most targeting startup by the second quarter of 2028. The challenge is enormous starting with conducting the interconnection studies, then the effort needed to actually construct the facilities, and finally supplying and delivering energy is also a significant undertaking. Efforts to streamline and innovate the process are under discussion.

The Texas Legislature’s Senate Bill 6 established expectations for the loads themselves regarding their commitment and responsibility to the grid (among other provisions), which include curtailment in emergency situations. Industry stakeholders are involved in deliberations at the PUCT under Project 58317 to address this and other aspects of these new loads.

Besides serving these energy and delivery needs, there are other needs such as ride-through performance of large loads in disturbances. ERCOT’s Large Load Working Group brings together developers and grid personnel to explore various options to fully incorporate large loads into planning and operations while recognizing varying performance characteristics and modeling needs.

At the national level, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) is working through its strategic plan as large load growth (particularly data centers) expands across the continent. NERC’s Large Load Task Force recently released the first of three planned documents: Characteristics and Risks of Emerging Large Loads. Work on a second whitepaper that is focused on reliability gaps is nearing completion and NERC just posted its preliminary reliability guideline on risk mitigation for public comment.

Separately, grid planners and operators are developing responses to the NERC Level 2 Alert on Large Load Interconnection, Study, Commissioning and Operations issued in September (responses are due early in January 2026) that are expected to provide key inputs to NERC’s next steps. NERC Chief Engineer Mark Lauby spoke about this work at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) annual Reliability Technical Conference on October 21. There he emphasized the importance of resource adequacy in light of the anticipated growth in demand from data centers and other large loads, while pointing out the need to accurately model and collect performance data for these new facilities.

Source:  ERCOT Large Load Interconnection Status Update to Technical Advisory Committee,  October 17, 2025