➤ Key Highlights
Data centers now dominate ERCOT’s large-load queue, overwhelming a system built for incremental growth.
Interconnection timelines are stretching as batch studies replace first-come approvals.
New SGIA rules shift more cost, risk, and responsibility onto developers starting 2026.
Power availability is no longer assumed — site selection without grid certainty is now a liability.
Texas grid operator is now facing extraordinary pressure from hyperscale demand and new rules that could directly shift delivery timing and risk for grid‑connected data center and industrial projects.
At the end of 2025, ERCOT was tracking roughly 230+ GW of large‑load interconnection requests — nearly three times what it had in late 2024 — with over 70 % of that load coming from data centers. This surge has overwhelmed the process originally designed for only a few dozen large loads at a time.
That volume has forced ongoing revisions to the Large Load Interconnection Process, including a stakeholder engagement push to build a new “Batch Study” framework intended to study groups of large loads together, reduce repeated restudies, and manage backlog and transmission coordination. These process changes are active through early 2026 and could materially affect timing, study order, and certainty for new loads.
In parallel, ERCOT posted an updated Standard Generator Interconnection Agreement (SGIA) that becomes mandatory for all new SGIAs executed on or after Jan 1, 2026 — meaning developers and host utilities must adopt the new form for interconnection agreements.
➤ TAKEAWAY
• The large load queue has ballooned, driven by AI/data center demand, creating planning and reliability challenges far beyond historic levels.
• ERCOT and the PUC are actively reshaping how large loads are studied and integrated, with new processes in early rollout.
• The SGIA update introduces contract‑level changes that project teams must incorporate into execution plans.
