The Public Utility Commission of Texas will take up a plan Nov. 5 to wire a 1,200-megawatt Amazon data center straight into the Comanche Peak nuclear plant, largely bypassing the grid that serves everyone else.
Comanche Peak Power Company, a Vistra subsidiary, filed in February for approval of what the commission calls a net metering arrangement: the plant and the customer share a connection point, and only the net flow crosses onto the public grid. The filing was amended in May to name Amazon Data Services as the customer. The load would sit on company-owned land beside the two-reactor plant in Somervell County and ramp from roughly 100 megawatts in late 2027 to the full 1,200 by 2031.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the state grid, filed its study Oct. 13 and recommended approval with conditions: the data center would have to cut its draw entirely within 30 minutes when ERCOT says so, be capable of disconnection at the breaker, and stay out of the markets that pay customers to curb demand. One fight is still open. Vistra objects to ERCOT classifying Comanche Peak as an existing stand-alone generation facility as of Sept. 1, 2025 — a label that shapes what the arrangement is worth. The commission listed the item on its Oct. 15 agenda and did not reach it. The clock that started with the ERCOT filing runs out in mid-December.
A smaller version of the same idea is on the agenda behind it: a joint request from a wind farm in Haskell County and a data center proposed beside it. So is a rulemaking that would write a standard contract for hooking up the largest new customers, going out for public comment, and a review of how ERCOT handles those requests now. Four large customers have complaints pending against ERCOT over its decisions, all of them set for discussion and possible action.
The rest is the commission’s ordinary load. It takes more time to rule on rehearing requests in the Howard-to-Solstice line, a 765-kilovolt, roughly 370-mile backbone across 14 counties from Bexar to Pecos that it approved in September and that landowners have contested. Twenty-nine other contested cases fill out a 53-item agenda, most of them small water and sewer rate increases. Public comment is the first item, three minutes a speaker.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 AM, Thursday, November 5, 2026. TRD 2026006438 was filed October 28 at 4:41 p.m.
- Where
- Commissioners’ Hearing Room, seventh floor, William B. Travis Building, 1701 N. Congress Ave., Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Public Utility Commission of Texas — five commissioners the governor appoints to six-year terms, subject to Senate confirmation. Thomas J. Gleeson is chairman. No seat is vacant.
- Format
- Open meeting, 53 numbered items: 30 contested cases, 21 rule and project items, public comment and a closed session on litigation, personnel and security.
- Live video
- The commission streams its open meetings and keeps an archive on its website.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · agency open meetings page
Commissioners
- Thomas J. Gleeson — chairman; Pflugerville; former agency executive director.
- Kathleen Jackson — Beaumont; professional engineer; former water board member.
- Courtney K. Hjaltman — Austin; lawyer; former public counsel for utility ratepayers.
- Morgan Johnson — Austin; lawyer; former deputy general counsel to the governor.
- Patrick Rhode — Austin; consultant; former White House and Homeland Security official.
Roster from the commission’s commissioners page, checked October 29, cross-checked against the governor’s appointment releases, including the March 2026 release naming Rhode to a term ending Sept. 1, 2027. All five seats are filled and no change has been announced since September. The agency page did not render Johnson’s and Rhode’s entries on the day it was read; both were confirmed from their own agency biography listings and from the governor’s releases. Connie Corona is executive director. Meeting contact: Ruby D. Hicks, (512) 936-7249.