June 18 (Reuters) - The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) on Thursday approved the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' (ERCOT) first "Batch Zero" process for large electricity users, creating a new framework to manage surging grid connection requests from data centers and other high-demand customers.

The process will group qualified projects of 75 megawatts (MW) or more into a single study, allowing ERCOT to assess future demand, allocate available grid capacity and identify transmission upgrades. ERCOT said it is tracking more than 438,000 MW of large-load requests, nearly 89% of them from data centers.

U.S. power demand hit record levels in 2025 and is expected to grow again this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as tech companies rapidly build out data centers, some of which use as much electricity as an entire city at a single site.

ERCOT expects to notify Batch Zero applicants of their project classifications in August 2026 and publish a final transmission plan in fall 2027, while applications for the next group, known as Batch 1, are expected to open in summer 2027.