Texas’ main electric grid operator is developing a new process to evaluate multiple large-load interconnection requests at the same time. The question for cryptocurrency miners and data center developers that are already in line is: Who gets to go first?
That should hopefully be sorted out by month’s end. That’s when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, hopes to have criteria announced for which energy-intensive projects could be considered for “Batch Zero,” the first group to go through ERCOT’s revised planning process.
At a Public Utility Commission of Texas, PUC, meeting on Thursday, Jeff Billo, ERCOT’s vice president of interconnection and grid analysis, said that for “Batch Zero,” the grid operator will consider proposed large load interconnection requests from projects that have been in the queue for some time and don’t need to be restudied. Projects that are less far along will be studied in a later batch, Billo said.
