Plain-English framing: ERCOT runs the Texas grid. It received so many giant new load requests (the queue is over 230 GW, more than 70% data centers) that the normal process — make every project wait years for full transmission upgrades — would freeze the whole pipeline. Batch Zero is a one-time amnesty-style cluster study to clear that backlog under a shared set of rules. PCLR is the deal inside Batch Zero. A 'Controllable Load Resource' is a load that agrees to be turned down on command. The 'provisional' version lets a data center connect now and use power up to a guaranteed firm level (its 'Low Power Consumption' floor), with everything above that subject to ERCOT curtailing it in real time until the grid upgrades that would let it run at full power are complete. In exchange the project skips years of waiting. It is the load-side mirror of how curtailable generation already plugs in elsewhere. The dates are the product. June 1 board approval and July 10 effective date are calendar-fixed. July 24 is the one developers act on: that is when an interested large load must file its Declaration of Intent and modeling data to claim a Batch Zero slot. Miss it and you wait for the ordinary process. Sources: EPE Consulting 'New Pathway and Deadlines in ERCOT's Batch Zero: PCLR'; ERCOT '145PGRR-01 Batch Zero Process for Large Load Interconnections'; Zero Emission Grid 'ERCOT Batch Zero Workshop #7'; Seyfarth Shaw 'ERCOT's Batch Zero Proposal and What It Means for Large-Load Projects in Texas'; cross-referenced with strategy/ercot-pclr-batch-zero-timeline.md.
Primary source · EPE Consulting / ERCOT / Zero Emission Grid / Seyfarth Shaw ↗
Why it matters
This is the live wedge the whole Texas thesis depends on, and the timeline is now hard rather than estimated. Cliff's operational window is roughly today through July 24 — about nine weeks. The committee votes clearing (PRS, ROS, TAC) means the rules are essentially final ahead of the June 1 board rubber-stamp, so the product can be built against settled text now rather than waiting. Three concrete to-dos: (1) confirm the May 19-20 TAC vote actually landed and note any last-minute amendments — a single TAC tweak to the financial-security or firm-load definitions changes the underwriting math. (2) The July 24 Declaration of Intent (Form W Part A) is the single highest-value structured document in the Texas pipeline — every developer claiming a Batch Zero slot files one, each carrying their per-study-year minimum firm-load limit, which is exactly the queryable, primary-source data the live-docket wedge is meant to ingest. (3) Pair this with the parallel PUCT financial-security rule (16 TAC §25.194, $50,000/MW non-refundable fee) so a developer sees both the ERCOT timing gate and the PUCT cost gate in one underwriting view.
Related filings
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