Denton City Council members are expected to discuss a possible data-center moratorium sometime in August, Mayor Pro Tem Nick Stevens said, but no meeting date has been announced and the city has not enacted a moratorium.
That reported discussion will take place against a much larger set of numbers already in Denton’s official record. The city’s two approved large data centers have contracted peak capacity totaling as much as 411 megawatts: 391 MW for Core Scientific and 20 MW for WAHA/QumulusAI. Those are contract figures, not a measure of how much power both sites are using today.
The distinction matters because the records describe both a large future commitment and present limits on delivering it. A June 26 City of Denton staff report says transmission overloads currently limit Core Scientific to 297 MW. Proposed transmission projects would total $300 million, and the report says they would not be completed before 2031 at the earliest.
What is approved, constrained and operating
The city report assigns 391 MW of contracted peak capacity to Core Scientific. Core’s own securities filing uses a slightly different number: approximately 394 MW of potential load at its Denton campus. That is three megawatts above the city’s figure.
The approved records do not resolve the difference, so the figures should not be treated as interchangeable. The city number describes its stated Core contract figure, while the company describes approximately 394 MW of potential campus load. The discrepancy is small compared with the total, but it is visible in the public records and worth keeping attached to the source that supplied each number.
Core’s filing also provides a separate snapshot of what was actually running. The company reported that approximately 132 MW at the Denton campus was operating and billing in March 2026. It expected the remaining construction to reach substantial completion in the second half of 2026.
Put plainly, the records contain three different kinds of numbers: approximately 132 MW operating and billing in March; a current city-described transmission limit of 297 MW for Core; and 391 MW of contracted peak capacity for Core in the city report. The company separately describes roughly 394 MW of potential campus load. None of those figures changes the 20 MW contract the city assigns to WAHA/QumulusAI.
Who pays, according to the city
The staff report says both approved data centers pay all of their power and transmission costs. That statement is important alongside the proposed $300 million in transmission projects: the city’s position is that the approved facilities, rather than other customers, are responsible for all power and transmission costs.
The report also recommends more protections for future projects. Those recommendations include additional financial-security, application and interconnection requirements. They are framed as safeguards for future proposals, not as an announcement that the two approved projects have been canceled or placed under a new moratorium.
For readers following the August discussion, that separates two policy questions that can otherwise blur together. One is whether council members will pursue a temporary moratorium. The other is what requirements the city should apply when future data-center projects seek approval or grid connections. The staff report addresses both, but the announced August discussion remains only expected, according to KERA’s report of Stevens’ statement.
A moratorium has legal limits
Denton’s report describes a moratorium as a limited legal tool, not an open-ended pause. It says the city would need evidence of a shortage of essential public facilities, would have to follow extended procedures and would need a supermajority vote. Any moratorium would be limited to 180 days.
Those conditions mean the expected council conversation is not itself a moratorium. The record supplied for this story contains no announced meeting date, no completed vote and no enacted pause. Until the city posts or announces a date, “sometime in August” is the most specific supported timing.
The 180-day limit is also a boundary on what the policy could do if approved. It would not, on the city report’s terms, create an indefinite prohibition. The report’s recommended financial-security, application and interconnection rules therefore remain a distinct part of the city’s options for handling future projects.
What the record says—and does not say—about water
The city says the two approved facilities use closed-loop or air cooling. Its report projects water use comparable to or below that of similar users. But the same record says exact usage data is legally protected.
That leaves a clear limit on public comparison. The city has disclosed the cooling methods and its general assessment, but not the site-specific usage figures that would let readers independently compare exact consumption. The protected data should not be replaced with estimates that are not in the approved record.
The disclosure is more complete on electricity: the city identifies both contracts, the Core transmission limit, the proposed transmission work and its earliest completion year. Core’s filing adds its March operating-and-billing figure and construction timetable. Reading the two records together shows why a single “megawatts” number cannot describe the campus.
What to watch in August
The first unanswered question is procedural: when, and on which agenda, the council will take up the possible moratorium. Stevens said a discussion is expected sometime in August, but that is not yet a scheduled action in the material approved for this report.
The next questions are substantive. Council members could address the evidence required for a moratorium, the extended process, the supermajority threshold and the 180-day ceiling. They could also consider the staff recommendations for future applicants. Any decision should be measured against what was actually adopted, rather than against the much broader 411 MW already under contract at the two approved facilities.
For now, Denton’s records establish the scale and the constraints: up to 411 MW in contracted peak capacity across the two approved projects, a 297 MW current transmission limit for Core, and $300 million in proposed transmission projects that would arrive no earlier than 2031. What they do not establish is an August meeting date, an enacted moratorium or publicly available exact water-use data.
