USA, Texas: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has announced new measures to address grid reliability concerns, combining a $200 M Texas Energy Fund grant with action on fast-growing data centre demand.
The grant will go to Entergy Texas to strengthen infrastructure serving more than 538,000 customers in Southeast Texas. The funding will support two projects across the utility’s service area.
The first will upgrade more than 643 km (400 mi) of transmission and distribution lines and improve more than 9,000 structures across the electric system. The second will reinforce flood-protection measures at five substations, helping them remain operational during extreme weather.
The announcement follows Abbott’s recent directives to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT on the impact of large data centres on the state’s power system. Abbott asked for action in July to ensure data centres add to electric capacity rather than only increasing demand.
The governor requested that data centre owners fully fund infrastructure needs related to their operations, so these costs are not passed on to residential customers. PUC and ERCOT were also asked to submit a joint memorandum by 17 July on further measures to protect residential and small business ratepayers.
By 31 July, PUC was instructed to begin action to reduce transmission costs for residential customers.
Abbott also said future legislation should address data centre electricity and water reporting, water-efficient cooling, landowner protections, setbacks and noise reduction.
Source: T&D World
