Texas has frozen energization of any new data center over 75 MW until ERCOT's audit reports land on December 10. That freeze has not stopped anyone from pouring concrete, closing financing or swapping power plants. This week the money kept moving in every channel the pause does not reach: off-grid, behind the meter, on batteries, and on the balance sheet.

Four items, one theme. The audit controls who gets connected. It does not control who gets built, who gets paid, or who finds out last.

"Local Government Should Be Included in That Conversation"

Kaufman & Company and ServerDomes Global broke ground on October 7 on Hueco Ranch, a $15 billion, 350 MW geodesic-dome campus on roughly 24,000 acres near Desert Haven in Hudspeth County, about 28 miles east of El Paso. The first 80 MW is slated for 16 months after construction begins, with up to ten more domes over the next decade.

The county found out the next day. Hudspeth County Judge Joanna MacKenzie said the county was not notified before the groundbreaking and that "local government should be included in that conversation." The developers are scheduled to present to the Commissioners Court on October 27. Baxtel also reports construction could start as early as 2027, which makes the October 7 event a ceremony with a shovel, not a construction start.

The power plan is the interesting part. The campus is designed for up to 90% behind-the-meter supply from geothermal and solar and sits in Rio Grande Electric Cooperative territory on the WECC side of the state line, not in ERCOT. That is the cleanest possible answer to an ERCOT interconnection pause: do not be in ERCOT. Whether Governor Abbott's directives to state agencies reach an islanded site in Hudspeth County is a question I could not answer from public documents.

The Last Calpine Divestiture Closes: 606 MW at Brazos Valley

Constellation completed the sale of the Brazos Valley Energy Center to LS Power on October 14. It is a 606 MW natural gas combined-cycle plant outside Houston, and it was the final asset Constellation had to sell under its agreement with the Department of Justice after buying Calpine, which closed January 7. The price in the August announcement was $860 million; Constellation's closing release did not restate it.

Do the arithmetic LS Power did: roughly $1,420 per kilowatt for existing, dispatchable, Houston-zone capacity, bought in the same month ERCOT's queue holds some 474 GW of requested load. Nobody builds a combined-cycle plant at that price today, and nobody gets a new one connected on a timeline an investor would call short. Buying the steel that already runs is the cheapest way to own a position in the load pocket. LS Power also has a separate roughly 4.4 GW Pennsylvania and Delaware package from Constellation expected to close by year-end, so this is a buyer collecting gas fleet, not a one-off.

150 More Megawatts of Megapacks in Brazoria County

Nightpeak Energy announced financial close and commercial operation of Bocanova 2: 150 MW, two hours, Tesla Megapack 2 XL, online September 17. With Bocanova 1, which started in August 2025, the Brazoria County site is now 300 MW. MUFG provided a construction-to-term loan and a tax equity bridge, U.S. Bank provided tax equity, and the output is contracted long term with an investment-grade counterparty the release does not name.

CEO Paris Hays said "we're seeing large loads come to the grid at a pace and scale that is fundamentally changing how the power sector plans for new demand." Fair enough, though the load he is describing is currently on hold. Storage is the one asset class that gets built against a load forecast that regulators have told everyone not to rely on, because it earns on volatility whether or not the data center shows up. The lenders priced it that way.

The Grid Did Not Wait for the Audit

For scale, ERCOT's all-time peak is about 91.1 GW, set July 22, roughly 6% above the 85.5 GW record from August 2023. This week was nowhere near it, but October is not supposed to be busy: a daily market note put Wednesday's hourly peak at 81,169 MW, above the upper band of the trailing five-year range, with warm Dallas and Houston temperatures and strong wind. Treat that figure as preliminary until ERCOT posts its settled numbers.

That is the part of the pause that does not get a press conference. Load that is already connected keeps growing into shoulder season, while the roughly 474 GW of requests, about 90% of them data centers, wait for December.

What to Watch Next Week

Monday, October 19. TCEQ owes the Governor's office an update on compliance with the directive to halt data center permits. Watch for whether it describes any permit as grandfathered.

Tuesday, October 27, just past the horizon. Hueco Ranch developers present to the Hudspeth County Commissioners Court, the first public test of the behind-the-meter model. Expect questions on water and on who answers to the county.

The ERCOT questionnaire. ERCOT's data center impact questionnaire responses were due October 12. If ERCOT publishes aggregate responses before December 10, the 474 GW number gets its first real haircut.

December 10. ERCOT's two audit reports. Nothing over 75 MW energizes before then.

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.