Studied Together: ERCOT's New Batch Process for Connecting Large Electricity Users

The grid operator ERCOT published an explainer dated June 18, 2026, under the heading "ERCOT Trending Topics". It sets out how ERCOT will now study requests to connect large electricity users, data centers among them, in batches instead of one at a time. This article reports parts of the explainer. It does not report the two rules the explainer names, PGRR145 and NPRR1325.

The queue, and the peak

By the explainer's count, large users totaling more than 438,000 MW of proposed demand had entered ERCOT's connection queue as of mid-2026, and nearly 90% of those requests were from data centers. ERCOT's all-time peak demand record, set on August 10, 2023, is 85,508 MW. The explainer puts the two side by side itself, "To put that in perspective." A large user, in its own definition, is "a single site with a peak electricity demand of more than 75 MW."

The old way of handling these requests was to study them one at a time, and ERCOT staff found that it "needed to change." Each new large project "affected and could potentially invalidate studies for projects that were farther along in the connection process." The explainer says the problem "triggered costly restudies that delayed completion timelines."

What a batch does

Under the new framework, ERCOT studies all eligible applicants together. In its words, the framework "allows ERCOT to assess how all the projects interact with each other and with the existing grid, producing a single, coordinated picture of what transmission upgrades are needed." Batch Zero "is the name for the first group of large-user applicants to go through the new process." Its rules went to ERCOT's Board of Directors, "which adopted them on June 2, 2026. The rules became final when the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved them on June 18, 2026."

ERCOT sorts the projects into three classes. Projects with earlier studies that meet set criteria, and several other categories of previously evaluated projects, are eligible to enter, and many will come in as base load, which means that "the amount of electric capacity allocated from prior work is effectively preserved for those projects." Others come in as studied load, with no allocation fixed in advance. Their share is set by a system-wide study of what the grid "can reliably support once all eligible projects are assessed together," and a studied load "may receive its full requested capacity, a partial allocation, or may need to wait until a subsequent batch, if the grid cannot accommodate it at the time." Some may wait. Projects that qualify as neither are excluded, and they "will be required to wait for a future batch study."

For a lender, the class a project lands in is the first fact to check. A studied load can come out with all it asked for, part of it, or nothing in this batch.

Money down, and two ways in

ERCOT also asks for commitment. "ERCOT understands that not all connection requests result in built projects," the explainer says, so developers in Batch Zero face "a commitment deadline currently planned for June 2027" to post financial security for their development and to prove they have the site control they need to build.

The framework also brings two optional pathways, both meant, in the explainer's words, for large customers "who want to connect in ways designed to reduce pressure on the transmission grid." The Withdrawal-Limited Private Use Network, or WLPUN, is for customers who plan to build their own on-site generation, "such as natural gas turbines, solar panels, or other sources." The framework lets that generation "offset the amount of transmission capacity they require, making it easier to connect at higher load levels." The Provisional Controllable Load Resource, or PCLR, is for customers "willing to let ERCOT reduce their power consumption during periods of localized stress on the grid." In return, they "can access a portion of the grid ahead of a full transmission buildout."

Both pathways trade something for speed. One asks a large customer to bring its own power, the other to accept being cut back when the local grid is under stress, and either one changes what a lender is lending against.

The calendar

The explainer's schedule began with a deadline of July 10, 2026, for projects to submit their technical studies and documentation, and notice of each project's class on August 7, 2026. In spring 2027 ERCOT is to tell each Batch Zero user how much electricity "can reliably be allocated for their project," and in fall 2027 a final transmission plan is to be published. After the list it adds that "Applications for the next batch study, Batch 1, will be accepted beginning in Summer 2027."

An excluded project waits for a future batch, and the next one opens to applications only after the first has been told what it can draw. In Texas, a place in line now follows the calendar of a batch.