Texas Welcomes AI If Data Centers Build Their Own Power Plants

Texas has seen soaring electricity demand in recent years, driven by population growth, extreme weather, data centers and AI, and cryptocurrency mining. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the operator of the electrical grid that represents 90 percent of the state's electric load, has issued reliability and conservation warnings at times of peak winter and summer demand as consumption soars to record-highs. There have been issues with grid reliability even without the most recent boom in generative AI and data centers using up as…