Texas Regulator Wants Data Centers to Build Power Plants
- New AI centers need their own generation, official says
- Proposed centers can consume as much electricity as cities
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Texas’ top electricity regulator has a message for Big Tech: If you want to build AI data centers next to power plants, you may have to build the power plant, too.
Data centers designed to support artificial intelligence can guzzle as much electricity as entire cities, leading some developers to propose building them next to power plants. But Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, said allowing construction near existing plants threatens resource adequacy on the grid if the data centers buy all the plants’ power. Texas has at times struggled to keep the lights on as its growing economy and population strain supplies.