Harris County Fights for a Say Over the Data Centers Driving CenterPoint's $66.7 Billion Plan
Harris County officials say the county has no legal authority over the data centers behind CenterPoint Energy's Houston-area growth forecast — 8 gigawatts of new load by 2029 — and they are asking state lawmakers for siting power before the January legislative session.
Harris County is pushing back against the data center surge underpinning CenterPoint Energy's $66.7 billion, ten-year capital plan, arguing the county has no legal say over what connects to the grid on its own land, The Inference reported. On Oct. 15, Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin appeared on the courthouse steps with Commissioners Lesley Briones and Adrian Garcia and read the utility's own investor numbers back to it: management has told Wall Street that 8 gigawatts of data center load would be energized across the Houston area by 2029, swelling system demand by roughly 50 percent, the report said.
The Commissioners Court voted on Oct. 15 to order emergency service and flood control agencies to flag every major permit application, while petitioning Texas lawmakers for siting jurisdiction ahead of the January 2027 legislative session, The Inference reported. Texas counties hold no zoning powers, leaving Harris County unable to impose development moratoria or steer substation locations, and the county is also awaiting an opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton on whether local governments have any statutory authority to pause data center builds, the report said.
CenterPoint raised its 2026-2035 capital plan by $1.2 billion to $66.7 billion in July, tying the spending directly to Houston's large-load queue, Data Center Dynamics reported. The utility has submitted more than 17 gigawatts of large-load projects through ERCOT's Batch Zero process, with approximately 14 gigawatts expected to be eligible, the report said — growth CenterPoint has said would amount to more than a 65 percent increase over its current system peak demand by 2031.
The fight is part of a wider Texas collision over data centers. Paxton opened a statewide investigation on Oct. 15 into water compliance across 156 data center projects in 32 counties, including Harris County, and Governor Greg Abbott's Sept. 21 directive halted Texas Commission on Environmental Quality data center permits pending an ERCOT audit due Dec. 10, The Inference reported. The next test comes Tuesday, Oct. 27, when CenterPoint reports third-quarter earnings and analysts watch whether the company folds a further transmission expansion into its base plan, the report said.
