Key takeaways

  • ERCOT's State and Community Impact RFI covers specified unenergized data-center projects starting at 25 MW.
  • Complete responses, supporting documents and a notarized developer attestation are due through RIOO by 5 p.m. Central Prevailing Time on October 12, 2026.
  • Section C asks about water sources and consumption on behalf of the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). ERCOT says an incomplete response to that section may carry criminal penalties and other consequences under Texas Water Code §16.012.
  • This is separate from ERCOT's September 9 Batch Zero verification RFI, which has its own rolling deadline and eligibility consequence.

Who has to answer ERCOT's data-center impact RFI?

ERCOT issued its State and Community Impact RFI on September 14, 2026. The notice applies to two groups of data-center developers whose facilities have not yet energized:

  1. Developers of facilities conditionally classified as base load or studied load in Batch Zero that have not energized at transmission voltage, defined in the notice as 60 kV or above.
  2. Developers of proposed facilities requesting at least 25 MW but less than 75 MW, reported through ERCOT's August 19 Medium Load RFI, classified by a transmission or distribution provider as a Substantiated Load, and not energized at any voltage.

That scope makes the exercise broader than the largest projects alone. Houston Public Media reported that the survey includes 247 projects requesting at least 75 MW and 214 projects in the 25-to-75 MW range.

The Oct. 12 deadline and RIOO process

ERCOT sends the RFI through its Resource Integration and Ongoing Operations portal, or RIOO. The transmission or distribution provider that receives the notice must enter at least one developer contact by the end of the second business day after issuance. RIOO then sends that representative access instructions.

The complete response must include required supporting documentation and a notarized attestation from the developer. It must be submitted through RIOO by 5 p.m. CPT on October 12, 2026. ERCOT says failure to answer all or part of the RFI will be reported to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the governor's office. ERCOT may also request clarifications under separate deadlines.

What ERCOT says about the water questions

The September 14 notice says ERCOT, the PUC and TWDB jointly developed Section C, which asks about water sources and consumption. ERCOT is issuing those questions on TWDB's behalf and will forward the answers to the water agency.

The notice gives Section C added legal weight: under Texas Water Code §16.012, ERCOT says a failure to respond fully may subject a recipient to criminal penalties and other potential consequences. That wording matters. The notice does not say every incomplete answer automatically produces a criminal case, and this article does not make that inference.

The RFI also gathers information beyond water, including public financial assistance, dependence on grid power, cooling technology, noise, light, traffic and ownership. Houston Public Media reported that the questionnaire contains more than 250 questions across nine sections.

How this differs from Batch Zero verification

The impact RFI is not the same as the Batch Zero Verification RFI issued September 9.

The verification request asks conditionally included large-load projects to prove eligibility for Batch Zero. Its complete response is due within 10 business days of each project's RFI issuance, with an extension of no more than five business days available on request. ERCOT says failure to submit a complete response on time or meet the verification requirements results in exclusion from Batch Zero.

By contrast, the State and Community Impact RFI has the fixed October 12 deadline and asks about a project's effects on the state and surrounding community. A developer subject to both requests must submit separate responses.

Training, report and the separate permit pause

ERCOT scheduled a RIOO training Webex for September 17 and says it expects to publish a report on the impact-RFI findings no later than December 10, 2026.

A later state action changes the broader permitting backdrop but is not a penalty created by this RFI. On September 21, the Texas governor's office said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had been directed to halt permits sought by data centers until ERCOT completes its audit. The state release describes that as a general pause while agencies gather information; it does not say that missing an ERCOT Section C answer by itself makes a project ineligible for a water permit.

What developers should track

For covered developers, the immediate operational checklist is narrow: confirm the correct contact in RIOO, separate the impact response from any Batch Zero verification response, assemble the supporting documents and notarized attestation, and submit the impact RFI by the October 12 cutoff.

For the market, the December report will be the next substantive output. Until ERCOT publishes it, the RFI establishes what the agencies are asking and who must respond; it does not yet establish how much water the covered projects collectively expect to use.

Sources

This article was researched and fact-checked against the following sources: