Data Centers in Texas: Power, Water, Hearings

How many data centers are in Texas?

Texas has one of the largest published concentrations of data centers in the United States, but there is no official state headcount that every agency uses.

Pew Research Center’s April 13, 2026 compilation of Data Center Map listings, accessed February 19, 2026, showed Texas second only to Virginia among states, with 466 total sites: 296 listed as currently operating and 170 listed as planned. In that table, “planned” included projects marked under construction, planned, or land-banked.

The Texas Tribune, analyzing Data Center Map together with another commercial dataset, reported in August 2026 that it found 582 existing and planned data centers in Texas. The two totals differ because the sources, access dates, and rules for counting campuses versus buildings differ. Neither figure is a state government registry, and both will be out of date as applications are filed or withdrawn.

This site’s map will show Texas points when we have a source and a status we can defend. It will not invent a third official total.

Where are data centers being planned in Texas?

Data centers are being planned across ERCOT’s load zones, with the largest share of requested interconnection capacity in the West Texas zone in the most recent ERCOT community-impact questionnaire.

On November 5, 2026, ERCOT presented a preliminary summary of its Data Center State and Community Impact request for information to the Public Utility Commission of Texas. ERCOT said it issued the questionnaire to 465 loads and received 433 responses covering about 177 gigawatts—about 97% of the requested interconnection capacity in that questionnaire set. All 245 Large Loads (75 megawatts or greater) responded. Among those Large Loads, 33 projects representing 36% of Large-Load capacity were requesting interconnections greater than 1 gigawatt.

Using facility coordinates from 429 reviewed responses, ERCOT assigned requested peak interconnection capacity roughly as follows (the presentation notes that the actual assigned load zone is set at interconnection and may differ, and that Non-Opt-In Entity zones are omitted):

West Texas accounted for about 41% of that requested capacity. The same preliminary slides said about 95% of the surveyed facilities would not conduct virtual-currency mining, representing more than 99% of the requested capacity in the set. ERCOT labeled the slides preliminary as of November 5, 2026, and said a fuller public report was targeted for December 10, 2026.

Those zone totals describe questionnaire respondents, not a list of street addresses. For a project on your road, you still need the local planning file or permit.

How do data centers affect the Texas power grid?

Data centers affect the Texas power grid by requesting very large, relatively steady new loads at the same time ERCOT must also serve ordinary household and business growth, especially during summer peaks.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s March 12, 2026 analysis said the ERCOT and PJM regions are expected to see the fastest electricity load growth tied to data centers through 2027, and that EIA’s February 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook implied average annual load growth of about 10% in ERCOT between 2025 and 2027. In a high-demand scenario that held generating capacity to the baseline forecast, EIA’s modeled wholesale-price increase was largest in ERCOT, which has limited connections to the Eastern and Western grids.

Separately, the Texas Tribune reported that as of June 2026 ERCOT had received requests for 466,497 megawatts of power from data centers seeking to connect—more than five times the highest amount of power the grid has ever provided, in the Tribune’s telling—and that many projects were looking to connect by 2030. That June request total is much larger than the about 177 gigawatts covered by the later community-impact questionnaire. The two numbers are not interchangeable: they come from different dates and different slices of ERCOT’s large-load universe. Energy experts quoted by the Tribune said it is highly unlikely that every queued request will be built.

If you are asking what this means for a household bill, the mechanism is the same as elsewhere in the country: who pays for new generation and wires. Read electricity bills for the national studies and for an example of a large-load rate class in another state. Texas tariff details belong in Public Utility Commission of Texas dockets and in your retail or transmission-distribution utility’s filings, not in a guessed statewide percentage.

How can Texans find information about a local project?

Texans can find information about a local project by checking city zoning and council agendas if the site is inside a city, then county agendas for tax deals, then ERCOT-related reporting only in aggregate, and state environmental or water records for permits.

The Texas Tribune guide linked above is the clearest public walkthrough. Points that matter for residents:

• Inside a city, zoning boards and city councils may hold hearings when a project needs a change of use, a specific permit, or public land. The Texas Open Meetings Act requires public notice for official business, with some closed-session exceptions for property and certain contract talks; final votes are supposed to be public.
• Counties generally have less zoning authority than cities. Tax-abatement agreements, however, are voted on in public and later appear among local incentive deals published by the Texas Comptroller.
• Property ownership is usually at the county clerk or appraisal district, but the listed owner may be a shell company.
• ERCOT treats project-level interconnection data as private and publishes much of it only in aggregate or, occasionally, at county level in responses to reporters.
• The Texas Comptroller has reported projects that qualified for a state sales-tax exemption available to qualifying data centers, including exemptions tied to certain equipment and electricity purchases. The Tribune noted 147 qualifying projects in that reporting and warned that many applied through a shell company.
• Air permits for backup generators or on-site power plants are filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Some permit types offer little or no formal public participation.

Use the questions to ask when you get to a hearing. Search by parcel and applicant name, not only by a familiar consumer brand.

What should residents ask about water in Texas?

Residents should ask which utility or groundwater district would supply the site, how many gallons would be withdrawn and consumed, and whether those figures appear in a written agreement or only in a slide.

Most Texas data centers sit inside a municipal utility or water district, though some large projects look at unincorporated land and their own supplies. The Tribune guide explains that water information may require a Public Information Act request, that utilities sometimes withhold customer-specific data, that groundwater conservation districts may have well information where they exist, and that surface-water rights run through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The Texas Water Development Board surveys monthly water use from data centers that use at least 10 million gallons a year; that dataset is available by request, not as a simple public dashboard.

National water totals on the water-use page cannot substitute for those local files. In ERCOT’s November 2026 questionnaire, cooling—and therefore much of the eventual water design—was one of the items developers were most likely to mark as not yet determined.

What are the most common questions about data centers in Texas?

Is 466 the official number of Texas data centers?

No. It is the total in Pew’s February 19, 2026 extract of one commercial directory. The Texas Tribune later counted 582 existing and planned sites from a broader set of sources. This site will not pick one number and call it official.

Does a large ERCOT interconnection request mean the campus is coming to my town?

No. It means someone asked to study or reserve grid capacity. Land-use approvals, financing, tenants, and water still have to fall into place, and many requests will not.

Why are West Texas figures so large in the ERCOT slides?

Because that is where a large share of the questionnaire’s requested capacity was located as of the November 5, 2026 preliminary summary. It is not a list of approved buildings.

Where should I look first if I live in an unincorporated area?

Start with the county agenda (especially tax items), the appraisal district, any groundwater district, TCEQ permits, and whatever the serving electric cooperative or utility will say in writing.

Is this page legal advice about Texas hearings or permits?

No. It summarizes published official and journalistic sources so that residents know where to look. It is not legal advice.

Sources

• Pew Research Center, “Top states data centers,” April 13, 2026, citing Data Center Map accessed February 19, 2026.
• The Texas Tribune, “Here’s how to find information about data centers in Texas,” August 11, 2026.
• ERCOT, “Data Center State and Community Impact RFI: Preliminary Summary,” presentation to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, November 5, 2026 (preliminary, subject to change).
• U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Fossil generation could rise with faster-than-expected growth in data center power demand,” March 12, 2026.

Texas listings on this site may be incomplete. The site is not affiliated with ERCOT, the Public Utility Commission of Texas, or any developer. Related pages: the U.S. map, proposed projects, and electricity bills.