Texas has just passed legislation requiring large loads like data centers to help pay for interconnection costs.
The bill was signed into law on Saturday by Governor Greg Abbott. It applies to customers pulling 75 MW or more from the ERCOT grid.
Additionally, the bill affects facilities with 50% or more of onsite generation. If grid capacity experiences shortfalls, these facilities may be required to give up some power to the grid or curtail their own loads.
Rules like this are becoming necessary in states like Texas, where data centers are booming. Texas is considered the second largest data center market in the country.
Other states have already passed similar legislation. Oregon recently created a special customer class specifically for data centers, while New Jersey has proposed specific cost rules for data centers to protect other customers from increased costs.
