The Huge Amount of Electricity Consumed by Central Texas Data Centers

Texans statewide are speaking out against the construction of data centers near their homes. There are many reasons for the pushback, with excessive energy consumption topping the list.

Inside Texas’s Unprecedented Data Center Tsunami

A massive transformation is quietly sweeping across the Lone Star State, driven by a  rush of developers looking to construct giant computer warehouses. As tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google race to expand their artificial intelligence capabilities, their computational needs have evolved far beyond the traditional internet infrastructure of the past. Today's AI and cloud computing demands require vast amounts of electricity, sparking a development boom that is pushing the state's resources into uncharted territory.

An Insane Surge in Demand

The scale of this digital migration has caught state officials by surprise. According to the Texas Tribune, records from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) reveal an unbelievable surge in connection requests from large-scale data centers. In two years' time, the grid operator logged 519 proposals, representing a huge jump from just 24 requests in the preceding year.

Maxxing Out The Meters

If every proposed project were approved, the combined energy draw would reach a staggering 438,595 megawatts. To put that in perspective, that volume represents roughly one-third of the entire power generation capacity of the United States. Approximately 90% of these connection requests come specifically from data center developers aiming to launch operations by 2030.

Read More: Why Data Centers Are Targeting Texas

Not Your Daddy’s Data Center

While ERCOT officials say many of these projects will never see the light of day, the sheer volume of proposals signals a historic shift. The average incoming facility is projected to draw five times the capacity of Texas's existing data centers, with the largest planned sites scaling to nine times the current maximum threshold.

The Big Power Picture

The Texas Tribune created a chart to show how much electricity these data centers will actually consume. It is staggering. The amount of power needed to power a 390 MW facility is the equivalent of:

488 grocery stores the size of Texas' largest H-E-B

244 Houston Rockets arenas

178 Houston Galleria-sized malls

80 Baylor University Medical Center-sized hospitals

18 University of Texas at Austin campuses

8 Dallas Fort Worth International airports

Now Compare the Chart to Central Texas Data Centers

The following data centers in Central Texas are either operating or under construction. They are listed according to the electricity they consume...highest to lowest. Compare their power use to the 390 MW on the above chart.

Riot Platforms/Bitcoin Mining/ Corsicana (Operating) - 1,000 MW

Nexus Data Center/Hubbard (Planned) - 612 MW

CyrusOne Data Center/Whitney Campus Lake Whitney (Planned)- 400 MW

Rowan Digital Infrastructure/Temple (Planned)- 300MW

Rowan Mariah Campus/Temple (Operating)- 300 MW

Jarell Data Center/ Prominent Property Group, Savannah Developers, and Power Infrastructure Partners /Jarell (Planned)- 200MW

Unknown Company/3911 County Road 305 Jarrell (Planned)- 200 MW

Meta Data Center/Temple (Planned)- 152 MW

Meta Temple Campus (Operating)-152 MW

ERCOT Policy Adjustments

In response to the huge influx of data center project proposals, ERCOT’s board recently approved policy adjustments to evaluate these applications in coordinated batches. This new framework requires developers to purchase or lease their land beforehand and submit a fee of $50,000 per megawatt. The strategy acts as a regulatory seawall, allowing the state to establish a more realistic picture of future demand while protecting local utilities from being overwhelmed.