Updated November 8, 2026. Facts are dated to their source.
Short answer
No rule or agency publishes a standard time from request to power for a Texas data center. The date a project is given is the number most teams plan around, and on the record most of those dates have not held. In Pallara's file of stated energization dates for new Texas large-load sites, 35% of first stated dates were met (16 of 46 with a known outcome, as of November 14, 2026).[1]
In 2026 the answer also depends on a state audit. ERCOT has paused approval to energize new data centers of 75 MW or more until its Batch Zero verification, audit and community impact review are done, with the report due December 10, 2026.[4]
Stated dates slip
Pallara records each power date a large load is given, with its source, and grades it when it falls due. A date recorded before its outcome is known cannot be revised after the fact, so the hit rate above is not a reconstruction.[1]
Plan on the date moving. The useful question for a site is not the stated date but what has to happen before it, and who controls each step.
A request is not power
ERCOT told the Texas Senate in July 2026 that it was tracking about 474 GW of large loads seeking interconnection as of June 2026, about 90% of them data centers.[2]
Far less has been approved. ERCOT's September 2026 operational overview counts 9,456 MW with approval to energize, and an observed monthly peak of 4,132 MW from those loads, which ERCOT describes as how much approved load it believes is now operational.[3] A queue position is a request, an approval is a permission, and only metered load is power.[6]
The 2026 holds
After the Governor's August 3, 2026 directive to verify data centers in ERCOT's process, ERCOT paused energization of new large-load data centers and crypto mining facilities.[4] In its August 20 presentation to the PUCT, ERCOT counted 17 large loads, 6,608 MW of peak demand over five years, that had finished every ERCOT process except approval to energize.[5][7]
The batch study that allocates capacity to new loads covers 2028 through 2032.[8] ERCOT said in August it would not finish that study by its April 9, 2027 date, and in September that the new timeline was still to be determined.[9][4] A load that still needs this study is waiting on a schedule nobody has published.
What to check for a site
- How ERCOT classified the load in Batch Zero: base load, studied load, or excluded.[4]
- Whether every attestation in the eligibility package can be backed with documents if ERCOT asks.[5]
- Which study year the load's capacity is allocated to, once results exist.[8]
- How many megawatts can run before firm service, and on what curtailment terms.
For a named site, a Pallara path study ranks the ways to run load before firm service, with the curtailment hours each implies. Contact Pallara.
The record
16 of 46 first stated Texas power dates held. Every date, graded.
Building in Texas? Send the site, the megawatts and the date you were given. contact@pallara.xyz
Sources
- Texas power date scorecard. Pallara, as of November 14, 2026.
- Assessing the Grid, Senate Business and Commerce Committee. ERCOT, Jul 29, 2026.
- Monthly Operational Overview, September 2026. ERCOT, Oct 16, 2026.
- Batch Zero Update, Board of Directors item 14. ERCOT, Sep 14, 2026.
- Batch Zero Verification and Audit, presentation to the PUCT. ERCOT, Aug 20, 2026.
- Reading the ERCOT large load queue. Pallara Research, Aug 12, 2026, updated Oct 10, 2026.
- Texas energization holds and proposed transmission billing. Pallara Research, Oct 24, 2026.
- Batch Zero Interconnection Study Scope, RPG. ERCOT, Jul 21, 2026.
- ERCOT, Texas PUC data center audit. Utility Dive, Aug 21, 2026.
Pallara represents no applicant and takes no position on any project. Decision support, not legal advice. Corrections: contact@pallara.xyz.