{"id":391091,"date":"2026-07-29T21:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391091\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T21:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T21:11:08","slug":"city-asks-state-to-extend-data-center-electricity-cost-protections-to-borderland-ratepayer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391091\/","title":{"rendered":"City asks state to extend data center electricity cost protections to Borderland ratepayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The City of El Paso is urging state regulators to ensure residents served by El Paso Electric receive the same protections from data center-related electricity costs as customers in the state’s main power grid.<\/p>\n

City officials announced Wednesday that they have submitted formal comments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), asking the agency to extend residential ratepayer protections being developed in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s June 10 directive on data center growth.<\/p>\n

The filing follows action taken by the El Paso City Council on June 23, when members amended the city’s legislative agenda to support policies aimed at preventing residential customers from paying for infrastructure costs associated with large data centers.<\/p>\n

According to the city, while the governor’s directive focuses on customers within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, El Paso residents are served by El Paso Electric, which operates outside ERCOT. City leaders argue those customers should receive the same protections.<\/p>\n

“We believe El Paso can lead in innovation while also protecting the people who live here. Welcoming investment and protecting residents are not competing goals, they go hand in hand,” Mayor Renard U. Johnson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“As demand for electricity grows, the costs of serving that growth should be paid by those creating it, not by working families, seniors, or small businesses. We’re asking the Public Utility Commission to make sure every Texan, including the nearly 700,000 customers served by El Paso Electric, receives the same protections. Ratepayers must remain at the center of every decision.”<\/p>\n

The city’s comments ask the PUCT to:<\/p>\n

Confirm the governor’s directive applies to Texans both inside and outside the ERCOT grid.Launch a separate rulemaking process for non-ERCOT utilities, including El Paso Electric.Apply the governor’s principles in pending and future proceedings involving El Paso Electric.Recommend future state legislation include protections for customers statewide.<\/p>\n

The filing also aligns with the city’s ongoing participation in multiple Public Utility Commission proceedings involving El Paso Electric, including cases related to the proposed Economic Development Rate and the McCloud Generation Facility.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Meta, BlackRock announce strategic venture for $14B El Paso AI data center campus<\/a><\/p>\n

City officials have consistently argued that the costs of infrastructure built to serve large electricity users, such as data centers, should not be shifted onto residential customers and small businesses.<\/p>\n

El Paso has become a major destination for data center development in recent years, including Meta’s multibillion-dollar campus under construction in the city. The project has sparked ongoing debate over electricity demand, water use and whether the cost of new infrastructure should be borne by large industrial customers or shared among ratepayers.<\/p>\n

The city said it will continue participating in Public Utility Commission proceedings to advocate for what it calls fair utility cost allocation and to protect El Paso ratepayers.<\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The City of El Paso is urging state regulators to ensure residents served…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-391091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}