Updated Aug. 17: Data centers agreeing to meet governor's standards and guidelines
AUSTIN - Governor Greg Abbott continues to announce data centers that have agreed to comply with the standards and guidelines he established earlier this summer.
Starting early in August, the announcements of those that have agreed to comply have included:
• Aug. 6 – QTS Data Centers, Diode, Amazon, Google, and Chevron
• Aug. 7 – Skybox, Digital Realty, and Mara
• Aug 10 – Meta and OpenAI
• Aug 11 – Oracle, EdgeConneX, and Stream Data Centers
• Aug. 12 – Google, Rowan, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Vantage Data Centers, and SB Energy
• Aug. 13 – Microsoft, Hut 8, Equinix, Galaxy, Compass Datacenters, and Montera Infrastructure
• Aug. 14 – Amazon, Lancium, Cipher Digital, Stack Infrastructure, Anthropic, and Nightpeak Energy
• Aug. 17 – Prologis, Ecolab, Crusoe, New Era Energy & Digital, Switch and Hanwha
• Aug. 18 – Power House Data Centers, CoreWeave, Emergent Data Centers, Riot Platforms, and Comanche Circle Data Center
On Aug. 18, the governor also announced that the Data Center Coalition, the data center sector's membership coalition, will comply with the standards and guidelines he established for data centers.
Since the governor began his initiative, one data center, Diode, announced that it failed to meet the governor’s standards and would not pursue a proposed data center in Henderson County.
“I established clear guardrails to ensure data centers protect our electric grid, conserve our water, respect our neighborhoods, and pay their own way,” said Abbott. “They must not pass costs on to Texas families or interfere with their quality of life.”
Abbott directed the Public Utilities Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to ensure data centers:
• Pay for their electric infrastructure instead of shifting costs onto Texas families and small businesses.
• Reuse their own water.
• Reduce the cost of electricity for Texans.
• Do not disrupt residential neighborhoods to preserve Texas’ quality of life.
• Pay their own way and eliminate reliance on outdated taxpayer-funded incentives.
In addition, the PUCT and ERCOT will examine each data center project and how they will:
• Pay their own way by disclosing all taxpayer-funded incentives, grants, abatements, and other public financial assistance tied to the project.
• Provide their own power by detailing projected electricity demand and plans for on-site generation or other measures to reduce reliance on the ERCOT grid.
• Protect Texas water resources by identifying water sources, projected water use, water reuse procedures, and water-efficient cooling technologies.
• Outline measures to reduce impacts on neighboring property owners and communities, including noise mitigation, light controls, setbacks, traffic improvements, emergency response coordination, and other community protection measures.
• Provide full transparency by disclosing project ownership and controlling interests.
The PUCT and ERCOT must receive and audit this information before data center projects can move forward, the governor said.
