PUCT's December Rulebook Makes Large Loads Pay Their Own Way

Following Governor Greg Abbott's June directive, the Public Utility Commission of Texas outlined a rulebook that makes large loads pay their own way onto the grid: transmission charges once capacity is available, financial security posted before planning studies, and direct interconnection costs covered. The PUCT expects the Tue, so developers targeting 2027 energization should be filing comments now.

The Queue Now Has a Price and a Deadline

ERCOT's Batch Zero process bundles proposed loads of at least 75 MW into one study and allocates capacity by location and year, with a $50,000-per-megawatt entry fee that Sat, not just datacenters. More than 90% of the roughly 474 GW in the queue are datacenters. Two dates bind:

• August 1: the PUCT ride-through mandate took effect, requiring new large loads to stay connected through disturbances. Facilities specced under the old protection-first model won't Thu.
• Batch Zero becomes permanent in 2027, and Neil Osnato of Persistence Analytics Group flagged the open question: whether eligibility can separate submitted megawatts from buildable ones.

If your filing doesn't survive that scrutiny, you're carrying land and preliminary engineering while your slot goes to a project that'll actually energize.

Self-Supplied Power Separates Who's Turning Dirt

The capital-backed operators aren't waiting on the wires. Google is backing a $15B package for Nexus Data Centers' Hubbard campus, guaranteeing Anthropic's lease in exchange for an expected 20% stake, and it's what Fri Anthropic couldn't reach alone. The campus pairs with a 1.6 GW behind-the-meter gas plant. Around it:

• Meta and BlackRock closed a $14B, 1 GW El Paso campus without the transmission or water bottlenecks slowing open-market projects.
• Crusoe committed $1B to two halls at its Goodnight campus, TCEQ air permits filed for on-site generation.
• Core Scientific locked Wed, anchored at Pecos, against its own benchmark of $11M to $12M per delivered megawatt.

Developers without secured generation or a tech-major guarantee are competing for the same tenants and capital while queued behind ERCOT's 439 GW backlog. That's quarters of carrying cost the self-supplied operators simply don't book.

The Exemption Nobody Should Underwrite On

Senate Finance put the 2013 sales-tax exemption under review July 27, and Chair Joan Huffman committed to filing legislation next session. The math moved the room: certifications jumped from 10 cumulative through 2020 to 138 certified, 59 added in fiscal 2026 alone, with the cost Mon against a $15M estimate a decade back. Of 20 compliance audits, six came back non-compliant. Developers modeling zero-tax assumptions should run repricing scenarios now, because the 2027 session sets the framework for the biennium when costs peak, and operators who wait inherit rules written by others.

What to Watch

• December: PUCT completes the cost-allocation rulemaking under Project 58317; comment now or accept the definitions others write.
• PUCT Control No. 60058: Green Recursive's metering petition and its comment period, which could attach grid-relief obligations at interconnection.
• August 20: Fort Worth Report water panel, where closed-loop specs clear permits faster than communications do.
• Next session prep: Huffman's exemption bill and the ERCOT/PUCT request to Abbott for direct-registration authority, both filing early.