AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott wants to build more natural gas power plants in Texas to keep up with rising demand on the grid.
Last month, the CEO of ERCOT said Texas will need more power to properly support our power grid by the year 2030. Pablo Vegas estimates that in six years, Texas will need 150,000 megawatts to power the grid. Right now, Texas has about 85,000 megawatts of power available, including wind, solar, coal, nuclear and natural gas.
In November, voters approved a resolution to create the Texas Energy Fund, which provides low-interest loans to incentivize building more natural gas plants. Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick want to expand the fund from $5 billion to $10 billion to build new energy plants as soon as possible.
“Texas has already received notice of intent to apply for $39 billion in loans, making the program nearly eight times oversubscribed,” Abbott and Patrick said in a joint statement on Monday. “With the new projections for 2030, we will seek to expand the program to $10 billion to build more new plants as soon as possible. The average plant will take three to four years to complete, and new transmission lines will take three to six years to complete.”
RELATED: 'These statements don’t line up' | ERCOT says it's ready for summer, but experts remain skeptical
The governor and lieutenant governor said Texas is currently fast to approve and build new plants, “but we must move quickly.”
At ERCOT’s testimony before the Senate Business and Commerce committee last month, energy officials said power demand in Texas is growing even faster than expected. The updated projection is 40 gigawatts higher than what was previously forecast. Lori Cobos with the Public Utility Commission of Texas said roughly 60% of the new demand is from Bitcoin mining and data centers, including those run by artificial intelligence. Cobos attributed the rest to hydrogen production facilities, along with the expansion and electrification of existing industries, including oil and gas.
The new projection caught several members of the Texas Senate off guard, with State Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Republican from Georgetown and the committee’s chairman, questioning why lawmakers were just now hearing it.
Lt. Gov. Patrick responded to ERCOT’s new projection in a social media post on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, writing that the state needs to take a close look at crypto mining and data centers. Patrick said the two industries “produce very few jobs compared to the incredible demands they place on our grid.”
State lawmakers won’t be able to pass new bills until the next legislative session, which begins in January.