ERCOT large load Batch Zero verification: the RFI clock that binds

A press kit says Texas megawatts are coming. An ERCOT large-load Batch Zero verification packet says whether the load cleared screening — and on what clock. Watt Brief reads Batch Zero the same way it reads any other public-record delta: identity first, then the one RFI or verification deadline that binds. A campus rendering with a Texas outline is not a row. A public filing with a document ID is.

Four fields before you trust the Texas slide

Open the ERCOT or interconnecting TSP packet. Pull these before you change a site-selection plan or a generator order:

• Document ID — the Batch Zero case number, verification ID, or tracking ID printed on the screening packet. That is the identity key with source and event class. We do not invent one because a slide said “ERCOT approved.”
• Screening packet — the public notice, large-load application summary, or verification checklist that attaches the load description, point of interconnection, and requested MW. The packet is where the clock lives.
• Verified load — not IT nameplate. The useful numbers are requested MW, load type, expected energization window, and whether the filing is for screening, study, or a later interconnection agreement. If the packet bounds MW, we keep the bound. If it only states a qualitative “hyperscale campus,” we do not invent a fake MW.
• Clock dates — Batch Zero submittal, completeness check, RFI issued, RFI due, verification issued, or withdrawal. An open RFI without a due date is not the same row as a closed verification.

Why Batch Zero binds before groundbreaking PR

Campus marketing moves when the developer wants it to. Batch Zero verification moves when ERCOT and the interconnecting transmission service provider say the large-load request cleared the early screen — or when an RFI clock forces an answer. For site-selection BD, utility large-load teams, and infra PE, the binding fact is not that someone announced a Texas campus. It is that a named document ID entered or left the Batch Zero process with a dated status.

An RFI is not a soft ask. It is a public clock: respond, withdraw, or miss the window. Watt Brief treats a new RFI on a known document ID as a delta. A restated “still in ERCOT process” headline on the same ID is not.

What counts as a Batch Zero delta

• New Batch Zero submittal with a document ID and load description.
• Completeness determination or verification issued on that ID.
• RFI issued or answered with a dated clock.
• MW, POI, or load-type amendment that revises the screening table.
• Withdrawal or termination of the Batch Zero case.

None of that is a trade-magazine feature. It is a pointer to the screening PDF and docket you can open. If the same document ID later gets a restudy or a revised MW table, that is a new delta on the same identity — not a duplicate with a restated lede.

What we skip

We skip generic “Texas data center boom” press kits that do not attach a Batch Zero ID or RFI. We skip restated headlines about the same document ID. We skip empty mornings. We skip inventing a case number because a map pin sat in ERCOT territory.

A Batch Zero row is not proof the campus will energize. Applicants withdraw. RFIs go unanswered. Later study phases recondition the POI. It is also not a substitute for the interconnection agreement, the facilities study, a water or air permit, a county CUP, or a PUC large-load tariff case — those are separate identities when the sources are separate.

Open the Batch Zero URL. Match the document ID. If the large load is not on that packet, the row is not for you yet.