Midland–Odessa Excess Power Climbs to 86/100—West Texas Oil Hub Now the Highest-Scored Build Market in the United States

## Highlights

Midland–Odessa, TX scored 86.4 on the DC Hub excess-power index this week—the highest mark of any tracked US market and a 3-point gain over the next-closest contender. The ERCOT market's constraint score sits at 20.1, among the lowest in the country and a signal that interconnection bottlenecks remain minimal despite the region's oil-and-gas infrastructure legacy.

The ranking puts Midland ahead of Oklahoma City (75.3 excess), Tulsa (75.3), and Cheyenne (73.8). West Texas now holds the top excess slot nationally, displacing SPP markets that dominated the leaderboard in recent weeks.

## What It Means

For site selection, Midland offers a rare combination: high excess power, low constraint risk, and ERCOT's deregulated wholesale market. The oil patch's existing generation base—gas turbines, flares, and grid-tied fields—translates to available capacity without the multi-year interconnection queues seen in PJM or MISO.

The sub-21 constraint score suggests that new load can connect faster than in markets with dense queue backlogs. For hyperscalers evaluating time-to-power, Midland's numbers argue for expedited permitting timelines and lower interconnection deposits.

## Second-Order Read

Midland's rise also reflects ERCOT's structural advantage: the ISO does not participate in multi-state queue coordination, so generation and large load both clear through a single state regulator. That means fewer handoffs, fewer jurisdictional gaps, and—critically—no FERC queue reform delays.

The implication for capex: West Texas land costs remain a fraction of Northern Virginia or Phoenix, and the existing industrial base means fiber, water, and skilled labor are already in place. Midland is not a speculative greenfield; it is an oil town with surplus power and no queue.

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**Source:** DC Hub Data Center Power Index (https://dchub.cloud/dcpi). Updated daily.

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