Gov. Abbott directs ratepayer protections from data center infrastructure costs

AUSTIN (KVIA) -- Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed state utility officials to protect residents from paying for data center infrastructure costs.

“Data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities, and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods,” said Gov. Abbott in a statement.

He sent a letter to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas demanding these actions:

• PUC must require data centers to fund electric infrastructure costs to serve their operations.
• PUC and ERCOT must identify actions under their authority to protect residential and small business ratepayers and send the information to the governor by July 17.
• PUC must initiate action to reduce residential ratepayers' transmission costs by July 31.

Gov. Abbott said he pledged to work with the Legislature in the next session to make an official code for these protections.

He said he'll work with lawmakers on legislation that would require data centers to use water-efficient cooling systems, report on electricity and water use, phase out outdated tax incentives and adopt other protections like noise reduction.

You can read the governor's full letter below.