On September 21, Governor Abbott's letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality put the state's position on data centers in one sentence: "Data centers must pay their own way, protect our grid and water, and complete the ERCOT and TWDB audits." Eighteen days later, this week's deals read like a set of answers to that sentence, given by people who would rather not wait for the audit.

A South Korean ministry is paying for 6.5 GW of gas in La Salle County. The state's own loan program just financed another 452 MW in Reeves County. A nuclear startup asked ERCOT for a place in line. And on Monday, every developer of 25 MW or more has to sign a notarized form saying what it is actually building.

Project Star: $22.3 Billion, 6,472 MW, and a Bill Sent from Seoul

On September 30, the Commerce Department and the Korean government announced Project Star, a $22.3 billion, 6,472 MW gas campus in Encinal, Texas. Related Companies and NextEra Energy Resources are developing it, with Lewis Energy Group supplying the site, gas and water. The power serves an adjacent, privately funded 5 GW data center campus from Related Digital, and surplus goes to the ERCOT grid. First generation is targeted for as early as 2029. Korea Times reports full capacity in 2032.

The money is the part to read twice. Korea's finance minister told a parliamentary audit that Seoul has already sent $2.4 billion to Washington for the project, about 10 percent of the cost. Korea Times describes it as the first project picked under the strategic investment arrangement. So the largest "bring your own power" project in Texas is being financed by a foreign government, built by Related and NextEra, to serve a tenant the announcement does not name. It also has no ERCOT interconnection details that I could find, so the "excess to the grid" line is a plan, not a filing.

The release arrived nine days after Abbott told every state agency to hold data center approvals. The project is a gas plant, which makes it the cleanest possible response to "pay their own way": the developer's own generation, on the developer's own gas, with someone else's balance sheet underneath.

Texas Energy Fund Loan No. 9: 452 MW Near Pecos

On October 7, Abbott announced the ninth finalized loan under the In-ERCOT Generation Loan Program: a 452 MW gas plant in Reeves County, borrowed by Pecos Power Plant LLC with Mercuria and Continental Resources as sponsors. Target start is 2027. The eight earlier loans total 4,994 MW, so the program is now at 5,446 MW of financed capacity.

The release does not say how many dollars the loan is for, so I am not going to guess. PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson called it "a dependable source of power for Texas families and businesses," with "quick start capabilities to meet fluctuating demand." Note what the release does not say: that any of this serves a data center. The state is lending to build gas for the grid at the same moment it is telling data centers to bring their own. Both can be true, but only one of them has a published loan amount, and it is not this one.

Blue Energy Asks ERCOT for the First Reactor Slot (an Update)

In an earlier issue I covered Blue Energy's half-finished construction permit at the Port of Victoria. The new development: Bloomberg reported on October 6 that the company has filed what is described as the first small modular reactor interconnection request at ERCOT. It covers up to five 300 MW GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 units, 1.5 GW of nuclear, paired with about 1 GW of gas, to serve a Crusoe campus. Per Big Energy News, the gas units are targeted for 2030 and 2031 and the first reactor for 2033, with a final investment decision expected in 2027.

Read the sequence. The gas arrives first and carries the load. The reactors are a 2033 option that holds a spot in the queue today. That is a fine strategy, and also the reason an interconnection request is not a power plant. I could not confirm the filing date or which county the site sits in from a primary source, so I am leaving both out.

Monday, 5 p.m.: The Audit Gets Its First Real Number

ERCOT's data center questionnaire is due at 5 p.m. Central on October 12. It covers developers of 25 MW or more in the interconnection process, requires a notarized attestation, and non-respondents are reported to the PUC and the governor's office. ERCOT and the PUC are targeting a report on or before December 10. Separately, TCEQ owes the governor a compliance update on the permit halt by October 19.

This is the first moment the state gets to count what is real. A queue that other outlets put near 474 GW, about 90 percent of it data centers, is about to meet a form with a notary stamp. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that the number of megawatts that survive the attestation is a small fraction of the number that entered. Project Star and Pecos both look like the survivors: named developers, named fuel, a financing path.

A Clarification on the Large-Load Rule

Last month I wrote about the PUC's new large-load interconnection rule and described it by the $50,000 per megawatt of security. That figure holds, but I left out half the fee structure. The rule, issued September 18 for loads of 75 MW and up, also sets a flat $100,000 study fee regardless of size, and the final version dropped the non-refundable fees in the March draft. The $50,000 per megawatt is financial security, not a fee, and roughly 80 percent is forfeited if a customer scales back or walks away. Small distinction, large difference to a developer deciding whether to bluff.

What to Watch Next Week

Monday, October 12, 5 p.m. Central. ERCOT's data center questionnaire deadline. Watch for any extension notice, and for how ERCOT describes non-respondents.

Thursday, October 15, 9:30 a.m. PUC open meeting in Austin. I have not been able to read the agenda, so check it for large-load and data center items before assuming anything.

Monday, October 19. TCEQ's compliance update to the governor on the permit halt, just past the window but the next hard date on the calendar.

December 7 and December 10. The PUC's expected decision on El Paso Electric's 366 MW plant for Meta, and the targeted ERCOT and PUC audit report. Both still stand.

Disclaimer: The Grid Report is Barrio Energy's market intelligence product. Nothing here is investment advice, and Andi is not your broker. Links go to primary sources wherever possible; form your own view.