Texas approved something today that reads like a case study in grid engineers not trusting software either. A 260-MW AI data center wants to sit next to a wind farm of about the same capacity, the second such pairing at this particular site, and the developer argued that since the combined load of both data centers (525 MW) exceeds what the wind farm can generate (265.5 MW), the second one shouldn’t have to follow the same curtailment rules as the first. The commission said no. Not only does it have to curtail, it has to be able to drop its entire load within 30 minutes during a grid emergency, with physical breaker disconnection if necessary. Not a software throttle. An actual switch someone can flip.

It’s the same conversation PJM was having yesterday about curtailing data centers when the grid gets tight, except this is a state regulator writing the mechanism into an actual order instead of sketching a plan on a whiteboard. There’s a second clause worth noticing too: the data center is barred from collecting demand-response payments tied to this same arrangement. That’s the regulator closing a loop I hadn’t thought to ask about. You don’t get co-located cheap power and a check for curtailing yourself. Pick one.

Meanwhile a much smaller story keeps quietly winning statehouses: plug-in solar. Utah first, then Colorado, Maine, Virginia, and now California’s Senate voted 35-1 to let people plug a solar panel into a wall outlet like a lamp. New York and New Jersey are next, waiting on signatures. Same grid, same electrons, opposite scale. One gets negotiated by lawyers arguing over 30-minute breaker windows. The other gets decided by whether your extension cord reaches the window.

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