Can the grid handle more data centers?

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Report says CPS Energy is actively working to plan for extreme growth in electricity demand over the next decade as new data centers come online in the state, executives told the utility’s board of trustees on Monday. Because San Antonio is located in the geographic center of Texas, CPS Energy will have to play a large part in upping the transmission capacity of electricity within the state as data centers continue to pop up across the state, said Elaina Ball, the utility’s chief strategy officer. CPS Energy expects to spend about $1.3 billion on transmission projects over the next five years to add a load-serving capacity of 1 gigawatt — enough electricity to power about 750,000 homes — to help Texas carry the demand load that new data centers will be generating, Chief Energy Delivery Officer Richard Medina said.

Data centers are specialized facilities designed to store, manage and process large volumes of digital data. They consume roughly 10 to 50 times the energy that a typical office building does. While data centers accounted for about 4% of the total U.S. electricity consumption load in 2023, it is projected to consume up to 9.1% of that load by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute. Texas ranks second in the amount of electricity consumed by data centers within the United States. “We have never seen an industry demand an increase for power like we’re seeing right now,” Ball said. “Probably the closest was when there was adoption of HVAC technology, but it truly is a stunning amount of growth that everyone in our industry is grappling with … and we are no different here in Central Texas.” CPS Energy is planning to build three new substations and 15 new or upgraded transmission lines over the next three to five years, Medina said. In total, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has approved nine “San Antonio South Reliability Projects” to increase statewide system capacity, support growth and increase renewable generation in south and central Texas over the next decade. CPS Energy’s board of trustees approved the route and construction of two of these projects on Monday.