--- title: "ERCOT: what it means · The AI Compute Race · DRYBURGH" source: https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/ercot description: "ERCOT: Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state's grid operator. Its queue of large-load requests, and its audit of them, recur through the chapters." --- # ERCOT What does “ERCOT” mean? ERCOTElectric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator. Its queue of large-load requests, and its audit of them, recur through the chapters. *Chapter 6.* From *The AI Compute Race*. [Read the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#buy) ## Where the book uses it - [Chapter 6 — Firm, Around-the-Clock](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes/chapter-6)Where the electricity comes from: grid queues, transformers, turbines and the firm power a datacenter needs every hour of the year, on calendars the buildout does not control. ## Where the record uses it - Scorecard indicator [ERCOT raw queue / live load](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard#row-14) - Dated test [Chapter 6, the queue is not a forecast; chapter 14, construction is the binding clock, due 10 December 2026](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests#2026-4) ## Sources that use it - ERCOT, “2024 Regional Transmission Plan (RTP) 345-kV Plan and Texas 765-kV Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan Comparison,” January 2025 (executive summary: “The estimated construction cost of the TX 765-kV STEP (including the Permian Basin Reliability projects) is approximately $32.99 billion”; the 345-kV plan “approximately $30.75 billion”; “approximately $2.24 billion higher than the 345-kV plan”; “approximately $5 billion per year of transmission project investment over the six-year planning horizon”; Table E1 puts the Permian Basin Reliability Plan projects at $13.77 billion of the $32.99 billion — a separately approved oilfield-electrification plan inside the total). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#ercot-765-step-jan25) - ERCOT Board of Directors, 8–9 December 2025, Item 14.1 (Kristi Hobbs, VP System Planning): the “AEP Texas, CPS Energy, Oncor and CNP Texas 765-kV-STEP Eastern Backbone Project, which is a subset of the 765-kV STEP Core Plan, a $9.384 billion, Tier 1 project with the expected in-service date between 2030 and 2032”; CCN applications still required. [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/company#ercot-board-dec25) - ERCOT, “Assessing the Grid,” presentation to the Texas Senate, 29 July 2026 (large-load requests 474.7 GW, 420.8 GW datacenters; 205 GW initially eligible under Batch Zero; 10.2 GW meeting section requirements; 3.2 GW authorized to energize; the figures are chart-embedded, not running text: slide 6 data table, 2026 column — Section 9.4/9.5 requirements met 10.2 GW, approved to energize but not operational 3.2 GW, observed energized 5.9 GW (5.8 in 2025), total 474.7 GW projected for 2032–33; slide 6 pie — data centers 90.2 percent, 420,812 MW; slide 10 — “Approximately 205 GW of Large Load is eligible for inclusion in Batch Zero based on existing studies”; key takeaway “approximately 474 GW of Large Loads seeking interconnection, of which ~90% are data centers”; slide 10 is titled “PRELIMINARY Overview of Batch Zero Eligibility” and its note reads “The following data is preliminary and only reflects eligibility for inclusion in Batch Zero. ERCOT will review all application materials and make final determinations … on or before August 7. ERCOT will communicate the results by September 2” — the data as of 28 July 2026; slide 6’s six status rows are a partition of the 61.1 GW projected for 2026 (32.8 + 7.5 + 1.5 + 10.2 + 3.2 + 5.9), so the 10.2 GW is not a subset of the 205 GW). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/filing#ercot-senate-jul26) - ERCOT, “Batch Zero Update,” Board of Directors item 14 for the meeting of 14–15 September 2026, posted 11 September 2026 (conditional classifications issued on 3 September under market notice M-A080326-04, whose text warns that “Failure to satisfy any applicable condition may disqualify the Large Load from Batch Zero”: 204 projects and 66.4 GW conditionally in the base case, 158 projects in the studied case at 127.9 GW on the cover and 125.4 GW on slide 6, a discrepancy the paper does not reconcile, 362 projects in all; slide 6: “This chart omits excluded load (302.2 GW, 373 projects)”; the Eligibility Verification Report and the Community Impact Review Report both due 10 December 2026; the original study-completion date of 9 April 2027 carried with its impact “TBD”; the counts are of projects, not of requests, so no survival rate follows from them; slide 4: “ERCOT has paused the energization of new Large Load data centers and crypto mining facilities until the completion of the verification and audit and community impact review”). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/filing#ercot-batch-zero-update-sep26) - ERCOT market notices of 3 and 21 August 2026 (Batch Zero classifications paused under the governor’s audit directive; limited exceptions granted; conditional classifications to issue 31 August; the second notice, M-A080326-02, is dated 21 August and reports the commission’s order of 20 August in PUCT Project No. 59142; the conditional classifications were issued on 3 September 2026 under M-A080326-04, not on 31 August as the 3 August notice planned, ERCOT’s Batch Zero Update of 11 September 2026 being the source). [In the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources/filing#ercot-audit-notice) And 22 more: [search the Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources). ## Related terms - [Batch Zero](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/batch-zero) - [Backstop](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/backstop) - [Behind the meter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/behind-the-meter) - [Beignet](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/beignet) - [Bridge power](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/bridge-power) - [Capacity auction](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/capacity-auction) - [Combined-cycle](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/combined-cycle) - [Curtailment](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/curtailment) - [Demand response](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/demand-response) - [Early-termination fee](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/early-termination-fee) - [Firm power](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/firm-power) - [Generator step-up transformer](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary/generator-step-up-transformer) From the glossary of The AI Compute Race. - [Campuses](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger) - [Tests](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/tests) - [Scorecard](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/scorecard) - [Data](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/data/releases) - [Chapter by chapter](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/companion) - [The record at a glance](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/observatory) - [The machine](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/machine) - [One campus, four futures](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/hyperion) - [Glossary](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/glossary) - [People](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/people) - [Sources](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/sources) - [Notes](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/notes) - [Where the book was wrong](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/corrections) - [Where its sources were wrong](https://dryburgh.com/corrections?book=vol1) - [The Paper](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/paper) - [Consent](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/consent) - [Who builds and pays](https://dryburgh.com/vol1/parties) *The AI Compute Race: Five Races, One Machine* is a book by Lee S. Dryburgh, the first volume of THE COMPUTE ECONOMY, published by Dryburgh, an imprint of Contestra OÜ, Tallinn, Estonia; its record closes on 8 November 2026. [About the book](https://dryburgh.com/vol1)[Tell me when it is out](https://dryburgh.com/vol1#notify)