Key points
- Denton's 371 MW sits outside Batch Zero allocation
- Pecos and Hunt conditionally approved, collateral posted
- Bernstein called CORZ among the most exposed in August
- Final allocation waits for Batch Zero to close
Core Scientific (CORZ) filed an 8-K Thursday morning laying out where each of its Texas data centers stands with ERCOT. The important distinction is between capacity that must clear the grid operator's Batch Zero allocation process and capacity that does not. Denton's entire 371 MW falls outside Batch Zero. Pecos and Hunt have been conditionally approved, and Core Scientific says it has posted the required collateral for both sites.
We've been reading Core Scientific's filings since early August, when Leopold Aschenbrenner's fund sold 11.5 million shares in two block trades. Thursday's filing is much drier. It answers a question left open after Governor Greg Abbott ordered an audit on August 3 of the data centers moving through ERCOT's large-load interconnection process. New approvals are on hold until that review is complete.
Here are the numbers from the filing. Denton has 297 megawatts energized and another 74 MW planned. Pecos has 300 MW operating and another 300 MW proposed. Hunt is a planned 431 MW campus.
Together, the three sites represent 1,402 MW. But only 1,031 MW (the 600 MW at Pecos and 431 MW at Hunt) is moving through Batch Zero.
What the pathway labels mean
Batch Zero is the Electric Reliability Council of Texas's process for classifying large loads of at least 75 MW, although qualifying existing and previously studied loads can sit outside its allocation process. It studies those loads as a group instead of one application at a time. The queue behind it is enormous. Abbott's August order paused the Batch Zero classifications while the state audits who is really in the queue.
Most of the language in the 8-K is ERCOT's, not the company's. Every label carries a date. Denton's existing power is conditionally approved as "Base Load, Pathway (a)." The filing glosses that as "longstanding existing load," because Denton was energized before March 25, 2022. Power that old isn't subject to the Batch Zero allocation at all. Denton's extra 74 MW is also outside it, since ERCOT already ran those numbers in its 2025 Regional Transmission Plan.
Pecos sits a category down. Its existing 300 MW is Pathway (b), "existing load energized after March 25, 2022 and before July 10, 2026." The other 300 MW is conditionally approved as "Studied Load."
Hunt isn't built yet, so it qualified a different way. It came in under Pathway (e), for "demonstrated maturity and advancement through the interconnection process." Core Scientific says it earned that label by finishing its interconnection studies, getting ERCOT to approve a 431 MW stability study, posting financial collateral, ordering long-lead equipment and starting construction.
Where the collateral came from
Collateral comes up twice in a filing that runs only three paragraphs. It connects to something the company announced two weeks earlier.
On August 27, Core Scientific closed $600 million of senior secured credit facilities. Only $100 million of that is a revolver. The other $500 million is a letter of credit facility. Those letters, the press release says, may be issued "to provide credit support for specific project obligations under utility agreements."
Letters of credit can let a company post security without depositing the full amount as restricted cash. Chief financial officer Jim Nygaard said at the time that the facilities were "expected to release approximately $300 million of restricted cash, meaningfully improving our capital efficiency and financial flexibility as we pursue opportunities in a dynamic and rapidly evolving industry." Two weeks later the company says it has posted what ERCOT asked for at two sites. The timing makes the facilities relevant, but neither filing establishes that the new credit capacity supported the ERCOT collateral.
Texas isn't the only place it's been buying power. On August 14 the company closed a $444 million cash purchase of Polaris DS. That deal came with about 440 MW of grid-connected capacity in Oklahoma, under existing agreements with Oklahoma Gas & Electric. Chief executive Adam Sullivan said acquisitions this year had added more than 600 MW of leasable power.
The word doing the most work in Thursday's filing is conditional. Core Scientific says so itself: "We will not receive the final allocation and load ramp until the conclusion of the Batch Zero process." ERCOT told the Public Utility Commission of Texas in August that large loads which fail that verification, or don't respond to it, will be disqualified from Batch Zero. The grid operator also told the market in August that it couldn't classify large loads on the original August 7 schedule. Several months was its own estimate for the audit.
So this doesn't tell you when the power flows. It doesn't tell you how much of the 1,031 MW survives the audit at full size either.
What it does tell you is how ERCOT has conditionally classified the company's sites, according to the filing. Back in August, Bernstein put Core Scientific on its short list of names most exposed to the pause, reasoning that near-term growth depended on new Texas connections. Thursday's filing is the company answering that on the record, with pathway labels and posted collateral instead of a forecast. Core Scientific traded at $18.02 at 11:06 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, according to Nasdaq real-time data. That's against $18.09 at Wednesday's close, and the $22.83 it closed at the day Aschenbrenner's blocks printed. Core Scientific's full filing history is on its filings page.
