A new survey finds that North Texas cities and counties are struggling to prepare for rapid data center development.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments, which published the survey, asked a group of 31 local leaders and municipal staff about how they’re addressing ongoing development.
The vast majority — 78% — of respondents said their city or county doesn’t have adequate infrastructure to support new data centers without major upgrades.
“A lot of the things that local governments identified in the survey are things that the developers could do to ensure positive outcomes,” said Susan Alvarez, director of environment and development at the North Central Texas Council of Governments. “It's addressing water supply, water use, addressing energy capacity reliability, sustainability measures.”
The survey also found that respondents have significant environmental concerns over water and energy used by data centers. Nearly all – 96% – said data centers can have the greatest strain on water resources. Another 81% are concerned over the strain to the power grid.
The region's latest water plan projects that demand for water will outpace supply within the next 10 to 20 years as the population continues to grow.
“We're tapping into resources that we don't necessarily have,” Alvarez said. “We've had some of our communities have existing drawdowns on their wells right now and so water is a significant concern across Texas.”
A spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition, which lobbies for the industry, previously told KERA that data centers are vital infrastructure for digital resources that range from virtual meetings to bank transactions. The development of artificial intelligence has also bolstered the demand for more facilities.
While many data centers that are planned or under construction in Texas will operate on a “closed loop” system that reuses water, Alvarez said the technology required to power that system requires more energy.
Respondents also said while there’s the possibility of economic benefits from new data center development, there isn’t enough information to support long-term value for their communities.
“Yes, there's potential for great economic improvement from tax revenues, but the data to be able to assess and plan to understand really how much of those purported tax revenues are real is not available,” Alvarez said.
The survey found that cities and counties in North Texas seek stronger guardrails for new development, such as sustainability requirements that could include water reuse, renewable energy use and efficiency standards.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently directed a pause on all new data center development until the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council complete a comprehensive audit before they connect to the power grid.
“There really is not a lot of data on this particular industry that helps local governments with either assessing whether it's appropriate for their community or planning for how to support,” Alvarez said. “Anything that the state can do to help local governments with respect to getting the data that supports good decision making, I think would be appreciated.”
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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