ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) plans to seek legislative authority to curtail data-center electricity demand earlier during grid stress.

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas plans to ask the Texas legislature for authority to require data centers to reduce electricity demand earlier in the grid-stress response process. The source describes a proposed expansion of authority, not a rule already enacted.

According to the report, Texas currently can require these reductions when an electricity emergency reaches the second level of a three-level alert system. Vegas wants intervention at level one, or potentially before an emergency declaration.

Vegas said operational planning needs to account for the time required to reduce consumption by large users such as data centers. He identified protecting residential electricity use and ordinary commercial activity as the objective, but the source provides no proposed curtailment volumes, notice periods, compensation terms, or legislative timetable.