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Texas pauses data center permits as grid requests reach 474 GW

a16z.com 31 min read Editor score 6/10

The excerpt says Texas’s queue for large new grid customers grew from 63 GW at the end of 2024 to 474 GW by June, about 90% of it data centers, before a permitting freeze. The account examines power and interconnection constraints on large-scale compute.

What

Texas paused new data center permits as large-customer requests in ERCOT’s queue reached 474 GW by June.

How

Speculative applications make it hard to identify real projects, while grid upgrades and community concerns add pressure.

Why it matters

Grid access and power supply are material constraints for engineers planning large AI data center deployments.

Read on a16z.com → Hacker News · 83 comments

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