Texas PUC approves ‘ride-through’ rules for data centers

Texas regulators have approved new rules requiring data centers and crypto-mining facilities in the state's main power grid (run by ERCOT) to stay connected during brief voltage or frequency disturbances, rather than automatically disconnecting to protect their own equipment. Grid officials say these sudden disconnections have become a real problem: ERCOT reported 28 events since 2023 where at least 100 megawatts of large computing load dropped off at once due to these grid disturbances, and with developers seeking to connect more than 438 gigawatts of new large-load projects in Texas, the risk of bigger, more frequent grid disruptions is rising.

For a homeowner, this doesn't require you to do anything, but it matters for grid reliability where you live. Large facilities dropping off the grid suddenly can trigger frequency swings that ripple out to everyone else's power supply. By requiring these big users to "ride through" short disturbances instead of tripping offline, the rule is meant to reduce the odds of cascading outages as more data centers and similar facilities get built and connected to the Texas grid.

Industry groups pushed back during the rulemaking process, arguing the state commission lacks authority to impose these requirements on retail customers and that solutions like dedicated battery backup systems are too costly to be practical at the scale needed. Regulators disagreed and approved the rules anyway. Facilities that fail to ride through a disturbance won't be penalized immediately, but they will have to investigate the cause and fix it on a set timeline, or risk being kept offline until they can show they meet the new standard.