Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s new data-center standards appear to leave Meta’s $14 billion El Paso campus untouched, according to reporting from El Paso Matters.
The reason? The data center campus sits slightly outside of ERCOT’s operational zone, despite still being in Texas. Only a few locations in Texas site outside ERCOT.
Abbott announced the standards on August 10 following public backlash against data centers ahead of the fall elections. Meta agreed to guidelines covering electric infrastructure, water use, neighborhood effects and public incentives. He directed ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas to review data-center projects and said noncompliant facilities could be denied connection to the Texas grid.
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Meta’s planned 1-GW campus–built in cooperation with BlackRock–will instead be served by El Paso Electric, which operates outside ERCOT. The PUCT regulates the utility, but Abbott’s announcement did not explain how the standards would apply to projects beyond ERCOT or what recourse the state would have against them.
City spokesperson Laura Cruz-Acosta said Meta’s agreements remain in effect and have not been amended. She said the company would have to comply if the PUCT adopts binding requirements that apply to the El Paso project.
That leaves the campus in a regulatory gray area: Abbott’s order names the PUCT as well as ERCOT, but its enforcement mechanism is tied to grid interconnection in a market that does not serve El Paso. For now, the project’s existing local approvals and incentives remain intact.
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