Texas grid is heating up again, this time from AI, not Bitcoin miners

ERCOT reported a record surge in large-load requests, with AI data centers surpassing Bitcoin miners and reshaping Texas’s grid planning and reliability outlook.

Texas is rapidly emerging as an epicenter of artificial intelligence-driven energy demand, with an unprecedented surge in large-load power requests, a wave now dominated by AI data centers rather than Bitcoin miners.

The figures, highlighted in The Miner Mag’s latest newsletter and drawn from ERCOT’s new System Planning and Weatherization Update, point to a grid facing a fundamentally different kind of growth.

ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s independent power grid and oversees reliable electric service for about 90% of Texans, reported that its large-load interconnection queue has ballooned to 226 gigawatts of new requests, roughly 73% tied to AI facilities.

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