DALLAS — Developers have set their sights on Texas as the next potential hot spot for data center build-outs, even as the state’s grid manager is still figuring out how to serve an expected surge in power demand.
Speakers at a conference here last week said Texas’ mostly isolated power grid, combined with a lack of federal oversight from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Texas’ business-friendly ethos, have made it stand out to investors.
“Clearly, Virginia has been a leader up to this point, but it’s starting to get to a level of saturation,” said Jim Burke, CEO of power giant Vistra, told a crowd at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “Texas has a lot of advantages.”
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s main power grid operator, last year saw a spike in applications from data centers and other large loads asking to draw 75 megawatts or more from the grid. The nonprofit grid manager received 225 requests to interconnect in 2025, compared with 152 from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter of 2024.
