Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Microsoft, Hut 8 and Equinix, along with Galaxy, Compass Datacenters and Montera Infrastructure, will comply with the standards and guidelines he established for data centers, according to a pair of Aug. 13 news releases from the governor’s office.
“I established clear guardrails to ensure data centers protect our electric grid, conserve our water, respect our neighborhoods, and pay their own way,” Abbott said in the announcements. “They must not pass costs on to Texas families or interfere with their quality of life.”
Earlier this summer, the governor established statewide standards directing the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ensure data centers pay for their electric infrastructure instead of shifting costs onto Texas families and small businesses, reuse their own water, reduce the cost of electricity for Texans, avoid disrupting residential neighborhoods, and pay their own way by ending reliance on taxpayer-funded incentives, the releases said.
In addition, the PUCT and ERCOT will examine each data center project’s disclosures, including all taxpayer-funded incentives and abatements tied to the project, projected electricity demand and plans for on-site generation, water sources and reuse procedures, measures to reduce impacts on neighboring property owners such as noise mitigation and light controls, and full transparency on project ownership. The two agencies must receive and audit that information before projects can move forward, according to the releases.
“The PUCT and ERCOT cannot make decisions to guarantee grid stability and reliability based on substantially incomplete information,” Abbott said. Any data center company that fails to comply with ERCOT’s audit process is subject to having its approval denied.
The governor’s office said the guidelines are being universally implemented by data centers across the state, noting that one data center that could not comply chose to end operations before beginning construction.