Governor Abbott Directs PUC And ERCOT To Shield Texans From Data Center Infrastructure Costs
Governor Abbott said data centers should add to Texas’ electric capacity, pay their own infrastructure costs, protect local communities, and reduce the burden on residential ratepayers. "Bring Your Own Power" (BYOP), a version of CRE customized for Texas, is a simple and practical way to help meet that goal.
BYOP makes it straightforward for data centers to add capacity. A data center choosing a BYOP power supplier will eliminate any chance of burdening capacity serving captive residential ratepayers.
BYOP also makes it straightforward for data centers to pay all electric infrastructure costs: interconnection, transmission upgrades, distribution upgrades, reliability impacts, congestion impacts, planning costs, and other grid costs caused by the new load. The cleanest way to avoid cost-shifting is to let new large loads build or contract for new islanded power systems that do not depend on the regulated grid.
BYOP will provide faster solutions for the data centers than waiting on the PUC, ERCOT, and the utilities. Faster solutions mean Texans experience the economic benefits from data centers sooner.
BYOP developers will be able to experiment in ways that the PUC, ERCOT, and the utilities cannot. Some successful BYOP experiments will discover new ways to reduce costs and improve service, which ERCOT and the utilities can then implement.
BYOP protects and simplifies the work of the PUC, ERCOT, and the utilities. If every data center is forced onto a shared grid, the PUC, ERCOT, and utilities inherit the planning, reliability, congestion, and cost risks associated with the new load.
