CenterPoint says 14 GW likely eligible for Texas’ ‘Batch Zero’ large-load interconnection

If you're a CenterPoint Energy customer in the Houston area, big growth is coming to the grid you're connected to. The utility says it expects 14 gigawatts of new large-load demand — mostly from data centers — to move through Texas' new "Batch Zero" process for connecting big power users to the grid. That's more than a 65% jump over the region's current peak demand, and CenterPoint expects most of these projects to be up and running by the end of 2030.

CenterPoint is raising its spending plan by $1.2 billion, bringing its 10-year investment total to $66.7 billion through 2035, partly to build out infrastructure for this new demand. The company says this growth should actually help keep bills in check: it's projecting over $5 billion in savings for residential and commercial customers over the next decade, as costs get spread across more electricity use. Whether that plays out as promised is something worth watching on your own bill over time.

The company also expects an extra 2 gigawatts of demand from local growth — new manufacturing and population increases in the Houston area — separate from the data center boom. None of this changes what a homeowner needs to do right now, but it signals that Texas utilities are betting heavily on rising electricity demand in the years ahead, which could shape future rates, grid reliability, and how utilities justify infrastructure spending in your area.