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Weekly recap · Sep 7 – 12, 2026

49.8 GW and $8B Hinge on December 10 Audit

Texas capital is stacking multi-GW campuses only where power, water, and local packages clear the same binder before December 10.

The week in briefings

  1. Mon Sep 7Temple Clears First Readings on Rowan's $4.2B Campus
  2. Tue Sep 849.8 GW Waits on ERCOT's Dec. 10 Audit of 300 Centers
  3. Wed Sep 9Google's 25-Year Iowa Deal and 22-Year Fortum Contract Put Power Terms First
  4. Thu Sep 10Selene, Horizon Junction, and Hubbard Stack in One Multi-GW Texas Window
  5. Fri Sep 11Amazon Puts 16,000 GPD and Own Generation on Wharton's Record
  6. Sat Sep 121,100 Acres Enter Site Work Before Cameron Names Load or Tenant

Audit Gate and Batch Zero

ERCOT will finish auditing roughly 300 data centers by December 10, the restart gate for Batch Zero studies stalled under Governor Greg Abbott’s directive. About 49.8 GW of data-center load sits suspended inside a 474 GW queue, and industry models put carrying costs near $8B by Q1 2027 if that date slips Tue. RFIs run through November; the final report hits the Public Utility Commission of Texas a week before its December open meeting. AEP has already collected nearly $2B in cash or collateral against 45 GW of Batch Zero load. Operators who can’t answer ownership, self-supplied power, water sourcing, and community mitigation before those RFIs carry idle capital while the study stays dark. Conditional classifications now cover 362 large loads totaling 191.8 GW, most still tied to PGRR 145 verification and open good-cause exceptions Sat.

Local Rules and Water Packages

Temple advanced first readings on Rowan Digital Infrastructure’s $4.2B six-building campus with binding successor standards: power-density caps, setbacks, noise limits, and water-use limits tied to cooling efficiency. Rowan committed about $32 million toward Temple’s South Temple water program, an aquifer-storage well it won’t own, and closed-loop cooling averaging 32,000 gallons per day Mon. Amazon put 16,000 gallons per day domestic use only, zero cooling draw, own generation, and CenterPoint retail on the Wharton County record for its $10B Boling campus Fri. Fluidstack started site work on a $4B, 1,100-acre first phase in Cameron County under a worksite permit that covers grading and stormwater only; load and tenant remain undisclosed while the county already opposes open-loop evaporative cooling. QTS is committing $250 million over a decade to Texas water infrastructure. Counties now price verified offsets and closed-loop design into the first hearing packet; incomplete files stack carrying cost between capacity availability and energization.

Firm Power Ahead of the Shovel

Amazon, Anthropic, and Galaxy Digital stacked multi-hundred-megawatt Texas filings in one window: Horizon Junction at $2.4B in Floyd County, Eagle scaled to ten buildings near $3B, Caspian and Selene near 700 MW and 900 MW, and Hubbard with Morgan Stanley exploring about $15B in financing Thu. Google’s 25-year Duane Arnold PPA backed a DOE loan of up to $1.9B for the 615 MW restart, and a separate 22-year Fortum contract covers half of Loviisa from 2030 Wed. Private generation and long offtake now travel with land control. Sites still sequencing power after site control meet a tighter study path as committed load concentrates.

What to Watch

  • December 10 ERCOT audit delivery to PUCT and any Batch Zero restart language
  • Comment posture on PUCT Projects 58481, 58482, and Control No. 60084 water-measurement filings
  • November 3 Railroad Commission general election between Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal and Republican nominee Bo French
  • Remaining Temple council vote on Rowan’s amended abatement and phase infrastructure terms