PowerHouse Data Centers Expresses Support for Governor Abbott's Efforts to Ensure Responsible and Successful Growth of Data Centers

August 13, 2026

The Honorable Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711

Dear Governor Abbott:

I write on behalf of PowerHouse Data Centers to express our support for your efforts to ensure responsible and successful growth of data centers in Texas, and specifically to commend your directive to the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) calling for a comprehensive verification of data centers advancing through the interconnection process.

PowerHouse Data Centers is the data center platform of American Real Estate Partners, developing large-scale campuses for leading U.S. Hyperscaler customers, and we are proud to be advancing multiple Texas projects through the ERCOT interconnection process.

We support this review because we believe it will confirm what committed developers already practice. Texas has attracted the largest concentration of digital infrastructure investment in the country, and a rigorous, evenly applied standard across these investments protects Texans. We are confident our projects will demonstrate exactly what these standards seek to accomplish across the industry.

PowerHouse’s position is straightforward: the communities that host this infrastructure should see real and lasting benefits and not be burdened by it. We applaud your efforts to ensure this standard is upheld across all digital infrastructure investments in the state.  

In line with your efforts, PowerHouse Data Centers will continue our commitment to:

Protect Residential Ratepayers. PowerHouse funds our own electrical infrastructure, and not one dollar of that cost falls to residential ratepayers. PowerHouse has posted the financial security collateral and contribution in aid of construction required by ERCOT and Oncor for its Texas projects, in full and on schedule, before any facility has been energized. We also support ERCOT's large load interconnection framework and PGRR 145, which require developers to put capital at risk before reserving grid capacity.

Conserve Water. The high-efficiency, air-chilled cooling systems employed at our campuses are designed to run on outside air for much of the year. The water used in our closed-loop cooling systems is continuously recirculated, allowing it to be reused multiple times rather than consumed after a single use. PowerHouse partners closely with our local municipalities and fully funds its own infrastructure and system upgrades, so none of those costs fall to the community. We also proudly exceed industry efficiency standards for water usage.

Provide robust community benefits. Across our Texas projects, we have committed to significant investments in infrastructure, noise mitigation, thoughtful environmental design and landscaping, and open space. These proactive investments are designed to minimize the project impact on surrounding communities. This includes burying overhead power lines, enclosing generators and cooling equipment with sound barriers and acoustic louvers, screening equipment behind solid masonry or stone walls, and preserving and enhancing landscape buffers.

We also invest in the places that host us, funding municipal infrastructure improvements, dedicating hundreds of acres for public parks and open recreation spaces under permanent public-access easements and paying for long-term road maintenance. We would rather be judged by what our neighbors say than by what we say about ourselves. These commitments are public record, not lip service.‍

Operate transparently. We will disclose any public financial assistance we have received or sought, our projected demand and energization schedules, and any additional information the Commission and ERCOT determine is necessary. Our Texas projects differ in scale, voltage, and design, and we will report on each of them individually and accurately.‍

We believe responsible development is demonstrated through action, and these commitments reflect that approach.

Governor Abbott, we recognize that distinguishing committed projects from speculative ones serves the state and the ratepayers. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you and your staff, and I would be honored to host you at one of our project sites - Prairie Ridge in Ellis County or Circle T in the town of Westlake - to see the scale of our investment, the infrastructure we have funded, and our teams who are building it.

Thank you for your leadership and your service to the people of Texas.

Respectfully,

Douglas Fleit
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
AREP PowerHouse Data Centers

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