Texas data center grid audit includes Bitcoin miner MARA

Texas ordered an audit of data center projects seeking to connect to its power grid before those projects can advance. Governor Greg Abbott’s August 3 directive requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas and grid operator ERCOT to verify the projects’ power plans, water use, public incentives, and community impacts. Projects that fail to meet the requirements can be denied a grid connection.

The Bitcoin-mining connection

The governor later named MARA among data center companies that agreed to comply with his standards. MARA says in its company filing that Bitcoin mining remains the foundation of its digital-infrastructure business. That gives this policy a specific crypto-company connection. The announcement does not identify a MARA project that was denied, delayed, or approved, and it does not measure an effect on Bitcoin production or price.

What the queue numbers mean

The governor’s office said ERCOT was considering more than 474 gigawatts of requests to connect to the grid, more than five times the grid’s record peak demand. It estimated that data centers accounted for about 90% of new power requests. These are requests in a planning queue, not operating demand or a forecast that every proposed project will be built.

ERCOT’s Batch Zero process studies qualified large-load projects of at least 75 megawatts together to assess available grid capacity and transmission needs. After the governor’s directive, ERCOT began sending verification requests to applicants. A project that fails the verification can be excluded from Batch Zero. The official notices describe a data center audit and a conditional grid-approval process, not a blanket shutdown of every large electricity user.

The earlier version of this article gave project-delay and revenue-loss estimates without a verifiable primary source. Those estimates have been removed. The official notices do not establish a specific financial loss for MARA or the data center industry.