Texas utility regulators clear their calendar Sept. 17 for a single case: whether a 180-megawatt data center may sit behind the meter at a West Texas solar farm and have its power use netted against what the panels produce.
The applicants are West Texas Solar Project II, which owns the 204-megawatt Taygete II solar farm near Coyanosa in Pecos County, and Silver Basin Digital Infrastructure, part of Hut 8 Corp., the Miami bitcoin-mining and data-center company, whose energy executive filed Silver Basin’s sworn testimony. They filed jointly in December under a 2025 law that requires the grid operator to study arrangements like this one and the commission to approve, deny or condition them. Three earlier cases have gone through the same process; this is the fourth.
The grid operator recommends approval with six conditions, the sharpest being that the data center cut its load within 30 minutes of an instruction during a transmission emergency, with the solar farm’s full output freed for dispatch. Silver Basin says it can meet that window and asked only for an hour’s advance notice where practical, which the grid operator agreed to write in. The real objection comes from Texas-New Mexico Power, the utility that would deliver power to the netted load: it argues the reliability studies behind the recommendation were run in 2023 under a procedure the grid operator has since replaced, and asks the commission to withhold approval pending a fresh study. AEP Texas, which performed those studies, says they followed the rules in force when the application was filed. Commission staff recommends approving the deal on the grid operator’s conditions as revised.
The commission is hearing the case itself, rather than sending it to administrative law judges, because the statute leaves no room. Once the grid operator filed its study Aug. 20, a 60-day clock started. If the commission has not acted by Oct. 19, the arrangement is approved by default.
Written arguments are due Sept. 23, with replies Sept. 28, leaving the commissioners about three weeks to decide. Because state law limits who may take part in these cases, no consumer or industrial-customer group is a party; the only voices are the applicants, the two utilities, the grid operator and commission staff. Whatever the commission does with the curtailment conditions will shape the terms for the next data center that asks to sit beside a Texas power plant.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 11 a.m. CT Thursday, September 17, 2026. The notice, TRD 2026005404, was filed September 9 at 3:08 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 members the governor appoints to staggered six-year terms with Senate consent. Thomas J. Gleeson is chairman; no seat is vacant.
- Format
- Special open meeting, one item: a hearing on the merits in Docket 59115. This is a contested case, not a rulemaking, so there is no general public comment.
- Live video
- Live and archived at adminmonitor.com, which carries commission video back years.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · commission filing search, control number 59115
Commissioners
- Thomas J. Gleeson — chairman; Pflugerville; former commission executive director.
- Kathleen Jackson — Beaumont; chemical engineer, former water board member.
- Courtney K. Hjaltman — Austin; former state public counsel for utility customers.
- Morgan Johnson — Austin; former deputy general counsel to the governor.
- Patrick Rhode — Dripping Springs; former White House aide and infrastructure executive.
Roster from the commission’s website, checked against the governor’s appointment releases. All five seats are filled. One small conflict: the governor’s release places Rhode in Austin, while his agency biography says he and his family live in Dripping Springs; the article follows the agency, which is the later and more specific statement. Parties to this case are limited by statute to the applicants, commission staff, the grid operator and the two utilities. Staff contact: Ruby Hicks, (512) 936-7249.