Plain-English framing. Texas's energy regulator is composed of three commissioners. Thomas Gleeson is the chair. When the chair publicly commits to a vote date on the record, the vote happens unless something extraordinary intervenes — staff don't usually delay a vote their chair has scheduled. This matters because yesterday's newsletter framed June 18 as 'largely a rubber stamp on the ERCOT-endorsed package.' Today's news confirms that framing is now backed by Gleeson's own public commitment to vote that day. The procedural risk to the July 24 developer deadline has functionally dropped to zero. The 100 GW number is the part that's worth keeping in mental cache. ERCOT's total system peak is about 87 GW. So 'Batch Zero' is going to allocate roughly 115% of current peak demand to new large loads. That's not 'a few new data centers' — that's a parallel power system being committed to existence over the next 5-7 years. Sources: Houston Public Media 'ERCOT votes to streamline process for data centers looking to join the power grid' (June 2); KEDT (Texas Public Radio affiliate) reposting same June 2 coverage; RTO Insider 'ERCOT Board Endorses Batch Zero Rule Changes'; ERCOT M-A301326-01 stakeholder-comment posting.
Primary source · Houston Public Media / KEDT / RTO Insider ↗
Why it matters
Two follow-throughs for the Cliff Batch Zero filing-assistant product. (1) Procedural risk has dropped enough that the 7-week developer window (now ~7 weeks until July 24) is the binding constraint on go/no-go decisions. The marketing pitch is no longer 'might want to file' — it's 'must file by July 24 or wait years.' (2) The 100 GW number is the right denominator for a TAM calculation. If even 1% of those projects use a third-party filing assistant at a few thousand dollars per filing, that's a real-money initial wedge — and it's the right size for a single-quarter sprint to validate before extending to PJM (where July 31 starts the same cycle). The Form W Part A structure plus the minimum-firm-load disclosure are the two pieces of the filing that should be productized first; the rest is paperwork.
Related filings
Exelon cuts high-probability DC load 18→11 GW -40% / pipeline 43→25 GW / ComEd cancels PowerHouse Hillwood 1.8 GW $20B TSA / EXC -3.1% / EIA TX 2027 14%→6% / outlier: FirstEnergy +50% AEP 63→69 GW Dominion 53.8 GW Southern 17 GW Camellia 3.2 GW with 1 GW flexible DR / BofA 230+ GW needed vs 93 GW planned / JLL 25 GW H1 absorption 1% vacancy 66 GW UC 95% pre-let / BNEF +52% 2030 118 GW +83% 2035 194 GW / $11.3M per MW +6% / 499k worker shortfall
On July 30 Exelon became the first major utility to mark its data center pipeline to market: 'high probability' load cut from 18 GW to 11 GW (-40%), total future pipeline from 43 GW to 25 GW, disclosed in the Q2 8-K alongside the state-policy squeeze (NJ...
Abbott Jul 24 joint-memo actions / pay own infrastructure / 3 legislative asks 2027 / Project 58000 4CP→12CP comments Aug 11 adoption by Dec 31 / ride-through Jul 13 / Docket 59220 Crusoe/Ensign 260 MW + 265.5 MW wind uncapped curtailment first §39.169 test / Amazon GW Ranch 7.65 GW Pecos County off-grid largest TX BTM / NRG 1.2 GW BYOP CCGT / Energy Vault 1.25 GW BESS+gensets
While the audit froze the front door, the rest of the Texas architecture kept assembling. Abbott's July 17 PUCT/ERCOT joint memo produced its public actions July 24: data centers pay for their own infrastructure, residential ratepayers get shielded from...
Batch Zero 326 projects 205 GW filed by Jul 10 / 2x projection / ERCOT queue 474 GW ~90% DC / all-time peak ~87,533 MW Jul 21 (verified; ERCOT deck said 91,089) / Abbott Aug 3 comprehensive audit = de facto freeze / M-A080326-01 suspends Aug 7 classification / good-cause exception Aug 20 PUCT / Aug 14 special meeting 250-300 projects under 9 months / EIA cuts TX 2027 growth 14%→6%
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