Texas Batch Zero Rewrites the Gigawatt Interconnection Game

Texas rewrote how gigawatt-scale load connects this week, and the winners are already the developers who stopped waiting on the queue.

The Queue Becomes the Game

The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved ERCOT's Batch Zero framework, the first time an independent system operator has run a single systemwide study for large loads at 75 MW and up. The shift changed the queue math overnight: ERCOT now studies total demand at once, allocates transmission, and publishes an upgrade plan.

The numbers force the discipline. ERCOT has logged 439 GW of connection requests, 89% from data centers, against an 85-GW historical peak. Batch Zero sorts committed load from speculation through five readiness tests: site control, active permitting, financing, equipment orders, and credible forecasts. Projects with executed interconnection agreements, transformer purchase orders, and site prep underway energize first. As we put it midweek, your interconnection agreement is now the only thing that matters.

Self-Supply Goes Mainstream

The clearest answer to a full queue arrived in Reeves County. Chevron and Microsoft signed a 20-year agreement anchoring Project Kilby, a 2.67 GW behind-the-meter gas plant co-located with a 2 GW Microsoft campus near Pecos.

• •Chevron's Energy Forge One builds and operates, with GE Vernova turbines and Solar Turbines filling capacity
• •First power targets 2028, final investment decision by year-end
• •Peak construction tops 6,000 jobs and more than $10 billion in lifetime tax revenue

Kilby isn't alone. Google's Meitner Energy Center pairs 1+ GW of dedicated wind, solar, and storage with compute; JERA committed $3 billion to a single-tenant gas plant; the OpenAI Stargate sites at Abilene, Shackelford, and Milam County all stay on schedule by pairing on-site generation with interconnection. Intersect's Sheldon Kimber named the model: bring your own generation. Ihab Osman put the value cleanly: the unit that wins is the deliverable megawatt that reaches compute.

Water Accounting Tightens

The House Natural Resources Committee spent nearly 10 hours on a single gap. The Texas Water Development Board now surveys 341 data centers, up from 22 in 2023, but only 17% completed the mandatory questionnaire, and the PUC's optional survey drew 8%. Counties without groundwater conservation districts, including Falls, Limestone, and Williamson, allow withdrawals with no local permit.

Engineering is closing part of the gap. Nvidia's Rubin design runs near-zero-water closed-loop cooling at 45°C, and Chevron's Kilby plan uses brackish, non-potable groundwater plus reused Permian produced water. Hays County enacted an emergency water-review pause through year-end. Developers who document offsets before testimony reaches Austin write themselves into the rules.

What to Watch

• •Kilby's final investment decision by year-end 2026, the proof point for whether dedicated generation becomes the default for 500+ MW loads
• •First Batch Zero results, which will reveal how much of the 65 GW clears the readiness bar
• •2027 session positioning, with Abbott naming regulation a priority and Sen. Charles Perry flagging disclosure mandates
• •SPP's transmission-as-magnet play at Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, and whether ERCOT utilities answer it