Texas’ Power Grid Needs Larger Increase Than Expected to Handle AI, Bitcoin Mining

Texas recently revised its estimates for how much capacity its grid will need, citing demand from artificial intelligence and bitcoin mining.

As the political environment for these two sectors deteriorates due to rising energy demands, Trump is doubling down on his support for mining.

Texas’ grid will soon need to expand dramatically to meet growing demand from bitcoin miners and AI data centers, while the political climate for those two sectors could also worsen.

Speaking to the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, Pablo Vegas, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s power grid, said demand from those two sectors is testing the grid and forcing officials to revise forecasts. how much energy it will need to produce by the end of the next decade.

“We’re trying to put together a puzzle that will illuminate how this market can work over the next five to 10 to 15 years,” Vegas said, as quoted by local media.

Vegas said capacity should increase from 85,000 megawatts to 150,000 megawatts over the next six years. The initial expectation was that the grid would only need 130,000 megawatts during this time period.

Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence data centers will account for more than half of the additional growth on the Texas grid, he said. Data centers for AI workloads use much more power than their counterparts due to the intensity of the workload.

Research from Vrije University in Amsterdam shows that artificial intelligence could be responsible for as much electricity consumption as Bitcoin in just a few years.

All of this comes as the political climate towards Bitcoin and AI power consumption worsens.

State Sen. Jose Menendez (D-San Antonio) said during testimony that mining operations are “inherently unfair” and that AI data centers could move into the state to take advantage of low energy costs while ordinary Texans “make tough decisions.” about costs”.

In a post on

“I’m more interested in building a grid to serve customers in their homes, apartments, and regular businesses and keep costs as low as possible for them, rather than in very niche industries that have large power demands and produce little business,” he wrote. . “We want data centers, but this can’t be the Wild Wild West of data centers and crypto miners crashing our grid and turning off the lights.”

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In December 2022, the Canadian province of British Columbia enacted an 18-month moratorium on new crypto mining operations, citing the small number of jobs they create compared to high energy demand. A state court upheld the ban earlier this year (the moratorium is scheduled to end at the end of July).

This all comes as Republican leader Donald Trump doubles down on his support for the Bitcoin mining industry.

“Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against CBDC. Biden’s Bitcoin hatred only benefits China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all remaining Bitcoin MADE IN THE USA!!! This It will help us.” ENERGY DOMINATES,” Trump said in a recent post on social media platform Truth Social.