Plain-English framing. ERCOT is the Texas grid operator. Two years ago it was receiving about 24 large-load interconnection requests per year. In the most recent two-year window it received 519. Those 519 requests sum to 438,595 megawatts of requested grid capacity. For comparison, total US electricity generation capacity is about 1,300 GW — so the queue of new Texas data center requests alone is roughly one-third of the entire US power system. Three things to internalize from the Tribune map. First, half the named projects (about 124 of 248) are in unincorporated areas — meaning no city zoning authority, only the county-level disclosure-checklist tools recently surfaced by Hill County's rescinded moratorium. Second, the new PUCT rule under consideration would require developers to pay $50,000 per megawatt as a security deposit and prove leased or purchased site control before ERCOT begins a connection study. Third, 90% of these projects target 2030 commercial operation — meaning the next 4 years of permitting and grid build-out has to absorb all of them or they don't materialize. ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas is quoted: 'This is an issue affecting the whole globe and certainly the country.' The PUCT vote scheduled for June 18 (Chair Gleeson confirmed it on the record at the June 2 hearing) will be the moment when this 438 GW queue gets formally triaged into Batch Zero (~100 GW) and everything-else.
Primary source · Texas Tribune ↗
Why it matters
248 named projects is the addressable market for the Batch Zero filing assistant. Half being in unincorporated TX counties means the consultant-replacement opportunity is two-layered: (1) the PUCT/ERCOT filing itself (uniform across all 248), (2) the county-by-county disclosure checklist (custom per jurisdiction, exactly what Hill County's rescission template established). Both layers are paperwork generation at scale, both demand the regulatory knowledge graph Cliff is building, and both have a real July 24 deadline. Worth pulling the Tribune's project list and cross-referencing against the existing Cliff data — it is the largest single primary-cited project list published so far.
Related filings
T+3 PJM bid close Jul 7 / T+3 Lakeland FL first reading Jul 6 9AM / T-6 ERCOT Form W Jul 10 / T+11 PJM auction results Jul 14 / T+16 Lakeland FL final vote Jul 20 / T+23 MD FERC comment deadline Jul 27 / Prince George's MD 2-year moratorium vote queued next week / NY A11560 not delivered to Hochul / 10-day clock not started / 6 deadline windows 24 days
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