Texas Scorecard by Paige Feild December 16, 2025
Experts say increased electricity demand and a stagnant number of reliable power generation sources are to blame.Despite Texas’ new laws and spending after the 2021 winter storm, the risk of winter outages is rising, according to a Texas Public Policy Foundation report.
A data center boom in Texas has added to a surge in electricity demand, while the number of dispatchable power generation sources—such as natural gas and nuclear—remain roughly the same. Intermittent power generation from wind and solar rely on specific weather conditions to function that do not always align during winter peak demand conditions.
Battery storage mitigates the intermittent supply but is costly compared to dispatchable natural gas, and its stores are depleted quickly.
State programs created following the 2021 winter storm provide corporate handouts in the form of low-interest loans and tax breaks in order to incentivize dispatchable generation. Yet, according to the report, only 2.3 gigawatts (GW) of natural gas capacity has been added compared to over 25 GW of solar and 16 GW of battery storage.
Data Center Demand
Data centers comprise the largest demand type as revealed at the ERCOT Board of Directors meeting last week.
Kristi Hobbs, a vice president at ERCOT, stated they have received 225 new large load requests to connect to the grid in 2025 as of November 18. Nearly three-quarters of the demand from those requests are from data centers, amassing a total demand of 164,191 megawatts (MW) or 164 gigawatts (GW).
A report released by ERCOT in November claims 1 MW of electricity can power 250 Texas homes during periods of peak demand. Based on this statistic, 164,191 MW can power over 4.1 million homes during a peak demand period.
Rising electricity demands from new data centers and other large industrial end users in Texas are contributing to ongiong risk of supply shortfalls and lengthening peak demand periods due to their round-the-clock operating pattern, according to the Winter Reliability Assessment by North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/ercot-faces-higher-winter-storm-power-outage-risk-than-in-2021/
