GRID WATCH

ERCOT fuel	MW	Share
Natural Gas	67.2 GW	38%
Wind	40.0 GW	23%
Solar	31.6 GW	18%
Battery Storage	15.9 GW	9%
Coal	13.4 GW	8%
Nuclear	5,139 MW	3%
Oil/Diesel	798 MW	0%
Hydro	549 MW	0%
Other/Biomass	374 MW	0%

Industry benchmarks every figure independently verified against its primary source

Cooling — PUE lower is better; 1.0 = perfect

Entity	PUE	As of	Source
Google (global fleet-wide)	1.09	2025	Google (datacenters.google)
AWS (global fleet-wide)	1.14	2025	Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon Sustainability)
US national average (all data center types)	1.40	2023	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (LBNL-2001637)
Global industry average (Uptime Institute Global Data Center Survey 2025, n=681)	1.54	2025	Uptime Institute (Uptime Intelligence)

CapEx per watt

Entity	$/W	As of	Source
1x1 combined-cycle gas turbine plant (generation side, not the data center building)	$0.92/W	2023	GridLab / Energy Futures Group / Halcyon, citing EIA (Sargent & Lundy cost study)
Traditional prime markets, full build (shell + M&E + cooling + fit-out)	$11.00/W	2025-2026	CBRE Investment Management, citing Turner & Townsend Data Center Cost Index
Global average (shell-and-core construction)	$11.30/W	2026 (forecast)	JLL

Data centers as % of grid demand

Entity	Share	As of	Source
Not yet sourced.

ERCOT deep dive

Upcoming Batch Zero deadlines

2026-07-10 — Form X / Form W / most ILLE attestations due
2026-07-24 — Batch Zero Load Information Form due to ERCOT

Watch feed

2026-07-24 batch zero deadline

Batch Zero Load Information Form due to ERCOT

Interconnecting TSPs must submit the Batch Zero LIF workbook, Dynamic Stability Study Form, and Section 9.2.1.2/9.2.1.4 attestations to BatchZero@ercot.com source

2026-07-10 batch zero deadline

Form X / Form W / most ILLE attestations due

ILLEs must submit Form X (WLPUN designation), Form W (PCLR commitment), and Section 9.2.1.1 attestations to their interconnecting DSP/TSP source

2026-06-18 regulatory

PUCT approves Batch Zero rules

PUCT approved rules for ERCOT to review an initial batch of large-load interconnection requests (75+ MW), including a $50,000/MW fee structure source

2026-03-31 queue update

Large-load queue reaches 438 GW

ERCOT tracking 438 GW of large-load requests; ~90% from data centers; 198 GW applied in Q1 2026 alone source

2026-03-13 queue update

137 new LLI submissions totaling ~140 GW by 2036

ERCOT reported receiving 137 new LLI submissions totaling approximately 140,000 MW of new large load by 2036, still being processed source

2025-11-30 queue update

Queue nearly quadruples year-over-year

226 GW of large-load interconnection requests, up from 63 GW twelve months earlier; 73% from data centers source

Snapshot table

Month	Total queue	Approved	Observed peak	Source
2026-03-31	438.0 GW	9,042 MW	3,883 MW	Utility Dive / PUCT; ERCOT Mar 2026 TAC report
2025-11-30	226.0 GW	—	—	ERCOT public data via davefriedman.substack.com
2025-03-31	—	9,042 MW	3,883 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Mar 2026 (TAC)
2024-11-30	63.0 GW	—	—	ERCOT public data via davefriedman.substack.com
2024-01-31	39.3 GW	4,479 MW	2,587 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-12-31	39.2 GW	4,479 MW	2,432 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-10-31	39.3 GW	3,926 MW	2,379 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-09-30	39.6 GW	3,926 MW	2,379 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-08-31	42.5 GW	3,744 MW	2,347 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-07-31	—	3,084 MW	2,336 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-05-31	41.8 GW	2,620 MW	2,072 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-04-30	39.6 GW	2,570 MW	2,013 MW	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2023-03-31	39.4 GW	2,570 MW	—	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024
2022-04-30	17.4 GW	—	—	ERCOT LLI Status Update Jan 2024

Compute per megawatt worldwide, TOP500 flagship systems

Flagship TOP500 efficiency improved 134× from 2008 to 2024 — a doubling every ~2.3 years. The ERCOT large-load queue nearly doubled in the last twelve months alone. Efficiency isn't going to save the grid: today's 438.0 GW queue equals ~14,807 copies of El Capitan, the most powerful computer on the TOP500.

List	System	Country	HPL Rmax	Power	Gflops/W
2024-11	El Capitan	United States	1,742.0 PF	29.6 MW	58.89
2024-06	Aurora	United States	1,012.0 PF	38.7 MW	26.15
2022-06	Frontier	United States	1,102.0 PF	21.1 MW	52.23
2020-11	Fugaku	Japan	442.0 PF	29.9 MW	14.78
2019-06	Summit	United States	148.6 PF	10.1 MW	14.72
2016-06	Sunway TaihuLight	China	93.0 PF	15.4 MW	6.05
2013-06	Tianhe-2	China	33.9 PF	17.8 MW	1.90
2012-11	Titan	United States	17.6 PF	8.2 MW	2.14
2011-11	K computer	Japan	10.5 PF	12.7 MW	0.83
2009-11	Jaguar	United States	1.8 PF	7.0 MW	0.25
2008-06	Roadrunner	United States	1.0 PF	2.3 MW	0.44

Dataset library

EIA Form 860 — Annual Electric Generator Inventory

Generator-level inventory (nameplate capacity, fuel type, owner/utility, in-service and planned/actual retirement dates, prime mover, technology, environmental equipment) for all US electric generating plants with combined nameplate capacity >=1 MW. Annual ZIP archive with multiple workbook tabs (utility, plant, generator, wind, solar, storage, multi-fuel, environmental). Texas/ERCOT plants are a filterable state subset, not a separate file. Free, no login required.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Department of Energy · Individual generator/unit level, aggregated to plant and utility; nationwide (Texas filterable). Current-format archive spans 2001-2025. · Annual, one release cycle per year. 2025 early-release data published 2026-06-09; final 2025 data due September 2026.

cataloguing source

NREL ARPA-E PERFORM Load, Wind, and Solar Generation Profiles (ERCOT/NYISO/MISO/SPP)

Time-coincident load, wind, and solar generation profiles. ERCOT actuals cover 2017-2018 with forecasts for 2018; NYISO/MISO/SPP actuals cover 2018-2019 with forecasts for 2019. Includes deterministic and probabilistic forecasts for existing sites and for projected capacity-growth scenarios derived from ~2021-era interconnection queue proposals.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), via OpenEI, ARPA-E PERFORM program (contact: Brian Sergi) · 5-minute resolution timeseries · Static historical archive, not continuously updated (published 2022-08-18; last revised 2022-10-06). 2017-2019 data — historical, not current.

cataloguing source

Weekly digest

Pro database

Project-level LLI tracking, county permits, CSV/API export, docket alerts.

Coming soon — free while in beta