Texas data center power queue hits 474GW, 90% from data centers
FinanceYF5 · x · 2026-10-10
Texas has paused new data center power connections as its large-load interconnection queue ballooned from 63GW in late 2024 to 474GW — over 5x its historical peak demand, 90% from data centers. Drawing on a16z's analysis of powering America's next growth wave:
- Grid bottleneck: New large loads nearly always require line and substation upgrades; fully connecting a large data center can take 5–10 years.
- Stability risk: Data centers may instantly switch to backup power on voltage disturbances, dropping gigawatts of load at once; in the isolated ERCOT grid, a sudden loss of 3.2GW could cause serious problems.
- Behind-the-meter power: SemiAnalysis has tracked 75GW of behind-the-meter generation orders, but most campuses still plan to eventually connect to the grid.
- Flexible load: Research estimates that large loads shedding just 0.5% of annual grid usage could unlock 10GW in ERCOT and nearly 100GW across 22 major US grids.
- New capacity: The US plans 86GW of new capacity this year (43.4GW solar, 24.3GW storage, 11.8GW wind, 6.3GW gas, 0 nuclear), while China produces over 80% of global solar modules and cells.
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