The state has paused approvals for new data centers connecting to the Texas grid, and water is one of the things regulators have been told to measure.
Gov. Greg Abbott sent the directive Monday, Aug. 3, to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Until the audits are finished, new projects cannot move through grid interconnection.
The water question
Large data centers can use several million gallons of water a day for cooling, depending on the design. That figure varies widely, which is precisely why it is on the audit list alongside electricity demand.
Cooling technology is the variable. Closed-loop and air-cooled designs use far less water than evaporative systems, and the choice is made at the design stage rather than after a facility is running.
For North Texas, where surface water is allocated through regional providers and long-term supply planning runs on decade timescales, a new industrial user of that size is a planning input rather than a rounding error.
The local pipeline
At least 248 data center projects are planned across Texas, including six in the Fort Worth area. Regionally, 26 large campuses are tracked from Sherman to Waco and Weatherford to Terrell.
Dallas-Fort Worth is the second largest data center market in the country.
