Electricity consumption in Texas is growing the fastest rate of any state, with the US Energy Administration Information (EIA) identifying large-scale computing facilities and cryptocurrency mining operations as the main sources of this rising power demand.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages 90% of the load on the state’s power grid.
Defined as loads greater than 75MW that can rapidly increase or decrease power consumption, large flexible loads (LFL) can be registered with ERCOT. The LFL programme aims to minimise the risk of wholesale power prices spiking to levels of $1,000 per megawatt-hour or more.
According to the EIA, LFL will total 54 billion kilowatt-hours in Texas in 2025, up almost 60% from expected demand in 2024 and representing approximately 10% of the total forecast electricity consumption on the ERCOT grid.
Some large-load facilities, primarily cryptocurrency mining facilities but also data centres and industrial factories, have entered into voluntary curtailment agreements with ERCOT to temporarily reduce their power consumption during periods of high system demand or low generator availability.
An update from ERCOT in early September indicated that projects representing approximately 26.5GW of LFL capacity have applied to become operational by the end of 2025, which the EIA calls “unlikely” given the typical approval timelines.
By the end of 2025, the EIA estimates that ERCOT will have approved operations of 9.5GW of LFL demand capacity. This would be 73% more than the current 5.48GW approved, of which 1.57GW was approved over the past 12 months.
The EIA commented that delays in the large-load approval process or in developers’ plans could reduce new large-load power demand in the state in 2025.
Texas is pursuing other avenues to accommodate the expected increase in power demand, including the recent approval of an expansion to its oil and gas output through the Permian Basin Reliability plan.
ERCOT is also looking to expand battery energy storage systems in the state to increase grid flexibility, including projects from TotalEnergies, Jupiter Power and Spearmint Energy.
