Are artificial intelligence, bitcoin mining and other data centers using so much electricity in Texas that it's going to raise electricity prices for consumers?
Not so far. Although numerous companies have rushed into Texas with data center plans, the red tape has only begun to spin around them, and energy analysts like University of Houston Energy Fellow Ed HIrs say it's not clear how many of those planned centers will actually see the light of day.
When the rush to build power-hungry data projects began two years ago, it was assumed that Texas electricity prices would remain relatively low when compared to other states and even other countries, but new residents have continually moved in during those years, more and more data facilities have made plans to move in. Now cheap electricity in Texas is no longer a given.
The near future of consumer electricity prices have a lot to do with whether the wave of transplants from other states continues and which of the data plants are built, but Hirs says, "a lot of it also depends on whether there is any perceived extra capacity available when the building of these centers begins, and a lot of them, I think, are going to be built with their own power plants."
That aspect of the data center plans skews the ability of officials and analysts to predict how much electricity will be needed in the short-term in Texas.
But the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas are both considering multiple plans for stepping up electricity access beyond the huge number of renewable power systems are in the planning and building stages
One of those alternate plans is the Southern Spirit project, which is intended to bring electricity from other states to run a generator in Texas. It's perhaps the simplest and easiest way to get new power to consumers.
"The whole premise behind Southern Spirit is that Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi need that electricity less than we do, and we can buy it from them," Hirs added.