AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, said it could have to improve the state’s power grid and change its operating procedures, after it saw a massive spike in large energy load interconnection requests over the past year.
At a Public Utility Commission (PUC) meeting Thursday, ERCOT said it saw a 227% increase in large load interconnection requests since this time last year. Those are requests for ERCOT to add buildings to the grid that use more than a specific threshold of energy.
ERCOT also said that the amount of large load energy requested compared to last year, which was 56 gigawatts, has more than tripled to 205 gigawatts.
In order to better process those requests, and keep the grid stable, ERCOT officials said that changes may need to be made.
“It’s going to take work for grid enhancements,” said Kristi Hobbs, ERCOT’s vice president of system planning and weatherization, at the meeting. “It’s going take work from the large loads, making changes to their systems and how they operate, and in the middle there’s ERCOT, and us improving our operating procedures and our planning processes so we can all meet that goal of reliable power in the state.”
Seventy percent of the requests came from data centers, according to ERCOT. Earlier this month, the city of Jarrell approved development of a data center near Jarrell High School. In July, the Taylor city council voted 5-0 to approve plans for a data center in the city.
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