Texas’s power grid has a new vulnerability, and it’s sitting inside air-conditioned warehouses full of servers and mining rigs. ERCOT, the operator responsible for keeping the lights on for roughly 27 million Texans, published a report on May 21 revealing that large data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities are routinely failing voltage ride-through tests.
The consequences aren’t theoretical. ERCOT identified four groups of large users that risk tripping over 5,000 MW of load each during normal voltage disturbances. For context, 5,000 MW is enough to power millions of homes on a mild day. When these facilities suddenly disconnect, they don’t just go dark themselves. They can destabilize the entire grid.
A pattern of abrupt disconnections
This isn’t a one-off concern. Since 2023, ERCOT has recorded at least 26 incidents where large loads abruptly disconnected during routine voltage fluctuations. Not extreme weather events. Not once-in-a-generation storms. Normal, everyday grid disturbances that equipment is supposed to handle without flinching.
The most dramatic example predates the current wave of concern. In December 2022, nearly 400 facilities tripped offline simultaneously, shedding roughly 1,700 MW of load. That represented about 5% of total electricity demand at the time.
