El Paso City Council voices frus­tration about data centers, sends letter to Gov. Abbott – Spectrum News

El Paso City Council voices frus­tration about data centers, sends letter to Gov. Abbott  Spectrum News

El Paso has roughly six to 17 data centers that are established or currently being developed. EL PASO, Texas — While everyone is talking about data centers in Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott’s temporary pause on new construction, in El Paso the conversation is different because of its electric grid. On Aug. 18, the El Paso City Council met to discuss and approve sending a letter to Abbott regarding the independence of El Paso’s power source since it is connected to the Western Grid. Most of Texas is part of its own independent grid run by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. “Nobody likes any of the data centers across Texas,” said El Paso resident Patrcia Osmand during the August meeting.

“Doesn’t matter which party you’re on.” Frustration rang out from the public during the meeting and from city council members, as there had been more questions than answers following Abbott’s order. “Most cities in Texas are on the Texas grid, ERCOT, but there are some other municipalities that are not,” said El Paso City Representative Chris Canales. “So, I know that there are many parallel efforts to understand how those cities fit into the governor’s order. But this is another step that we can take, and I’m glad that my colleagues proposed it today. No guarantee that