Texas utility regulators meet Thursday to decide whether the grid operator can blow past its own deadline for sorting hundreds of proposed data centers into the connection queue, after the governor told it to slow down and check them first.
The grid operator, ERCOT, told the market on August 3 that it would ask the commission to excuse it from the timelines in its own planning guide. The reason it gave was a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott that same day directing it to run a verification process before advancing any data center through interconnection. ERCOT said the consequence was that it would miss an August 7 deadline to tell utilities how each large customer had been graded in its first batch study. It filed the request August 10.
The scale explains the caution. ERCOT told a Senate committee on July 29 that roughly 474 gigawatts of large loads were seeking to connect as of June, about 90 percent of them data centers, and that some 205 gigawatts were eligible for the first batch. Most of those projects will never be built. Sorting which ones are real is the whole purpose of the study now running late.
The rule meant to govern any of this is still unfinished. The commission proposed a large load connection standard in March, covering any new hookup of 75 megawatts or more, and closed public comment on April 17. Nothing has been filed in that docket since April 20, and Thursday’s item is listed for discussion and possible action rather than adoption.
The rest of the 36-item agenda runs from the very large to the very small. Three generators want permission to wire an existing power plant straight to a new data center. El Paso Electric seeks a first procedural order on replacing an aging direct-current tie to the neighboring grid in New Mexico, and two West Texas transmission lines are up for final orders. At the other end, commission staff will put on a hearing over its petition to install a temporary manager at Jones Acres Water Company, a small investor-owned utility in Denton and Wise counties; the company has filed nothing in the docket and the commission has made no findings. Watch whether ERCOT gets its exception clean or with a new deadline attached.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:30 a.m. CT Thursday, August 20, 2026. The operative agenda was filed August 12; a separate notice the same day set the water hearing.
- 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 with Senate consent to staggered six-year terms. Thomas J. Gleeson is chairman.
- Format
- In person. Public comment opens the meeting, three minutes a speaker, and is limited to matters not in a contested case; sign up with staff outside the hearing room. Comment on contested items must be filed in writing.
- Live video
- Streamed at AdminMonitor, linked from the commission’s broadcasts page, and archived there.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · commission agenda (PDF)
Commissioners
- Thomas J. Gleeson, Pflugerville — chairman; former commission executive director.
- Kathleen Jackson, Beaumont — engineer; former Texas Water Development Board member.
- Courtney K. Hjaltman, Austin — former state public counsel for utility customers.
- Morgan Johnson, Austin — former deputy general counsel in the governor’s office.
- Patrick Rhode, Austin — consultant; former White House special assistant.
The roster follows the commission’s own commissioners page, cross-checked against the governor’s appointment announcements. All five seats are filled. Hjaltman’s term expired September 1, 2025 and nothing found in the governor’s announcements since shows a reappointment, so she appears to be serving as a holdover; state law leaves the duty to fill an expired seat with the appointing authority. Rhode, appointed in March 2026, is listed in Austin by the governor’s office and Dripping Springs by the commission. The commission grew from three seats to five under a 2021 law. Its Sunset review is scheduled for the 2028-29 cycle, and it is set to expire September 1, 2029 unless lawmakers continue it. Meeting contact: Ruby Hicks, (512) 936-7249.