An investigation by Straight Arrow News reveals that during 2024, large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations across Texas utilized more electrical power than the combined residential consumption of San Antonio and El Paso. Industry analysts project that this energy demand will continue to expand significantly in the years ahead.

By mid-November, the Public Utilities Commission of Texas had registered 22 cryptocurrency mining facilities. Throughout 2024, these registered operations collectively consumed over 14.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity, based on publicly available records. This consumption represents approximately 3% of the total electricity generated on the state’s power grid during that year.

The electricity used by these mining operations would be sufficient to supply power to more than one million Texas residences annually. Representatives from the Bitcoin industry contend that direct comparisons between cryptocurrency mining electricity usage and Texas municipalities present a misleading perspective, noting that mining operations reduce power consumption when electricity market prices rise. However, some electricity market analysts outside the cryptomining sector express skepticism about this assertion, with certain experts indicating that Bitcoin mining contributes to increases in consumer electricity costs.

Electricity Consumption Analysis

According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, San Antonio’s municipal utility company, CPS Energy, distributed more than 11.1 million megawatt-hours to approximately 865,914 residential customers during 2024. In the El Paso region, El Paso Electric supplied roughly 2.7 million megawatt-hours to 312,576 residential customers across El Paso and portions of southeastern New Mexico.

The investigation determined that cryptocurrency mining electricity consumption in Texas matches the combined residential usage across San Antonio, the El Paso service area, and a comparably sized Texas municipality such as Garland, where residents consumed approximately 908,000 megawatt-hours in 2024. On average, each of the 22 registered facilities consumed over 668,000 megawatt-hours annually.

The electricity demand of cryptomining has expanded considerably. In June 2024, a senior official from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas projected that cryptocurrency mining could draw approximately 2,600 megawatts from the grid. As of November 2025, this demand has reached 4,288 megawatts, with projections indicating it will surpass 5,300 megawatts by 2027—representing a 20% increase over the following two years.

Data Collection and Documentation

The Texas legislature enacted Senate Bill 1929 in 2023, mandating that virtual currency mining operations with capacity exceeding 75 megawatts register with the Public Utilities Commission. Following this legislation, a Straight Arrow News reporter initially requested registration documents through the Texas Public Information Act. The PUC denied this request, contending that releasing specific information about mining operations could facilitate terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure. The Texas Attorney General’s office substantially supported the journalistic request, resulting in ongoing litigation between these agencies.

Subsequently, Straight Arrow News filed an additional records request seeking aggregate data from all registered facilities while excluding specific information about individual operations. This request successfully yielded the electricity consumption figures presented in this investigation. The available data likely underrepresents total consumption, as it only encompasses facilities capable of drawing at least 75 megawatts. While 22 mines meeting this threshold have registered, separate research identified approximately 60 cryptocurrency mining operations distributed across 33 Texas counties.

Grid Impact and Economic Considerations

Industry representatives assert that cryptocurrency mining provides grid stabilization benefits and generates additional revenue for renewable energy providers. Some research suggests that mining can incentivize renewable energy development and that flexible loads support grid stability. In Texas, mining operations participate in ERCOT demand response programs that provide financial incentives for reducing consumption during peak demand periods.

However, energy economists and policy researchers present contrasting perspectives. Critics characterize these ERCOT payment programs as exploitative rather than beneficial. Energy economist Ed Hirs from the University of Houston notes that cryptocurrency mining represents additional market demand beyond standard residential and commercial usage, potentially supporting power plants that would otherwise operate at reduced capacity. Daniel Cohan, a Rice University professor specializing in energy policy, indicates that mining operations likely increase wholesale electricity prices and natural gas consumption on less demanding days, though precise consumer price impacts require more detailed analysis.

Environmental advocates contend that cryptocurrency mining companies prioritize profit extraction from the electrical system without providing corresponding societal benefits.

Texas Cryptocurrency Mines Now Draw City-Sized Loads From the Grid

Texas cryptocurrency mining facilities consumed more electricity in 2024 than all the homes in San Antonio and El Paso combined, according to state records obtained by Straight Arrow News. The scale and speed with which the digital-asset industry is reshaping the state’s power grid underscores a growing tension between economic development and grid stability.

Public documents show that the 22 mining operations large enough to be registered with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) burned through more than 14.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity last year—about 3 percent of everything generated on the Texas grid. The draw is roughly equal to the annual power needs of more than one million typical Texas homes and exceeds the residential usage of the state’s second- and sixth-largest cities combined.

The rapid uptick matters because Texas has marketed itself as both business-friendly and energy-rich. State leaders tout the miners’ flexibility—companies are paid to shut down during emergencies—as proof the industry can help stabilize the grid. Critics counter that the sector’s around-the-clock appetite for cheap power is raising wholesale prices, taxing power plants and leaving ratepayers to pick up the tab.

Texas emerged as the nation’s crypto-mining capital after China’s 2021 crackdown sent miners scrambling for new locations. Senate Bill 1929, adopted in 2023, requires any operation capable of drawing 75 megawatts or more to register with the PUC, creating a first-of-its-kind public paper trail. Those filings—released only after a journalist sued for access—revealed both the scale of current consumption and the likelihood that official tallies undercount smaller mines scattered across 33 counties.

Current load and fast-rising forecasts

• In 2023, miners statewide were already using about 2,700 megawatts of power—enough to light roughly 680,000 homes—according to industry data cited by researchers and later confirmed by state regulators PoliticoPro.
• By June 2024, a senior official at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) told state lawmakers that the mining fleet could soon require 2,600 megawatts—a figure echoed in a subsequent PUC report The Texas Tribune.
• ERCOT’s November 2025 planning outlook shows the load climbing to 4,288 megawatts and projects it will top 5,300 megawatts by 2027, a 20 percent jump in only two years.

How the numbers compare

San Antonio’s city-owned utility, CPS Energy, delivered a little over 11.1 million megawatt-hours to 865,914 residential customers in 2024, while El Paso Electric supplied roughly 2.7 million megawatt-hours to 312,576 homes across West Texas and southern New Mexico. Together, those two metropolitan areas used about the same amount of electricity as the 22 registered crypto mines.

On average, each registered facility drew 668,000 megawatt-hours—more than the entire residential load of Garland, a Dallas suburb with 246,000 residents. The registry captures only operations above the 75 megawatt threshold; independent researchers have documented at least 60 mining sites statewide.

Disputed benefits and hidden costs

Industry groups say the comparison to household consumption misses a crucial point: miners ramp down quickly when prices spike, freeing capacity during heat waves and cold snaps. Firms that participate in ERCOT’s demand response program are paid to curtail power use when grid conditions tighten. Those same payments, executives argue, provide an additional revenue stream for wind and solar projects, smoothing the fluctuations of renewable generation.

Yet critics such as University of Houston energy economist Ed Hirs view the arrangement as a subsidy that shifts risk onto ordinary Texans. “Without crypto, a lot of marginal gas plants would sit idle,” Hirs said in an interview. “The extra demand props up prices even on mild days, and households feel that in their bills.” Rice University environmental engineer Daniel Cohan adds that running more fossil-fuel plants on standby increases carbon emissions that Texas already struggles to control.

The regulatory fight over transparency

The battle over who gets to see what miners are doing illustrates the industry’s political muscle. When Straight Arrow News first requested detailed registration forms in 2024, the PUC denied the petition, arguing that disclosing sites and capacities could invite sabotage. The Texas attorney general’s office sided largely with the journalist, touching off ongoing litigation. A second, narrower records request—seeking only aggregated data—ultimately produced the 14.7 million-megawatt-hour figure.

Under SB 1929, the PUC must keep updating its public registry. As of mid-November 2024, 22 operations were on the list; only weeks later a new filing showed that total prospective crypto load had climbed to 3,824 megawatts, suggesting additional facilities are either expanding or waiting in the wings.

Why Texas became the mining mecca

Four factors make the Lone Star State uniquely attractive: abundant natural-gas generation, vast renewable resources, low transmission charges, and a lightly regulated market that allows large customers to buy power at wholesale prices. The same advantages that lured chipmakers and data centers also entice miners. The sector’s round-the-clock computing rigs create an almost perfectly flat load profile—something rarely seen outside heavy industry. That constant draw helps explain why miners consumed more electricity in 2024 than San Antonio or El Paso households. While cities sleep, Bitcoin servers continue churning through cryptographic puzzles in search of digital coins. Even a brief dip to collect demand-response payments leaves a sizable baseline demand on the grid.

New economic promises, old infrastructure stresses

Proponents argue the sector bolsters rural economies by repurposing abandoned industrial sites and buying stranded renewables that might otherwise be curtailed. Riot Platforms, one of the state’s largest operators, says its 2023 tax and payroll spending topped $28 million in a single Panhandle county. Local officials, eager for jobs, frequently roll out tax abatements, cheap land and infrastructure grants.

But ERCOT’s own reports suggest that meeting future mining demand will require more natural-gas peaker plants unless renewable build-out accelerates. That could become costly for ratepayers if fuel prices spike, as they did during the February 2021 winter storm. At the same time, the interconnection queue for new solar and wind farms has ballooned, putting added pressure on transmission lines already operating near capacity.

Environmental stakes

Because Texas has no statewide limit on greenhouse-gas emissions, state regulators focus almost exclusively on reliability and price. Environmental advocates warn that any large new load, whether from crypto or traditional industry, will inevitably keep older gas and coal plants running longer. They point to the 2,700-megawatt consumption in 2023 and the 4,288-megawatt projection for 2025 as evidence of a trend that could erase gains from the state’s wind and solar boom PoliticoPro.

The next policy crossroads

Lawmakers return to Austin in January 2025 facing dueling proposals: one measure would drop the registration threshold to 10 megawatts, capturing dozens of smaller mines; another would codify demand-response payments, effectively locking in the incentive that miners now count on. Either path will shape how Texas balances economic development with grid stability as crypto’s energy appetite grows.

Analysis: where the numbers might lead

If ERCOT’s 5,300-megawatt projection for 2027 proves accurate, crypto mining alone would require more power than Houston’s entire residential sector used in 2022. Meeting that demand exclusively with renewables would entail roughly 14 gigawatts of new wind or solar capacity—an undertaking comparable to building the nation’s largest onshore wind farm every two years. Without such investment, the cost of keeping gas generators online could undercut Texas’ competitive electricity market by tightening reserves and lifting prices.

Whether the industry becomes a flexible friend or an expensive burden will depend on how quickly miners agree to firm curtailment contracts and how transparently they report real-time consumption. More granular data would allow ERCOT, regulators and researchers to model grid behavior and price impacts with far greater accuracy than the annual averages now available.

For now, the public record is clear on one point: cryptocurrency mining has grown from a niche pursuit to a city-sized power drain in the space of three years. Texans will soon decide how much larger that footprint should be allowed to grow.

Sources

• https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/12/15/texas-loads-up-on-bitcoin-00685454
• https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/25/texas-cryptocurrency-mining-registration-public-utility-commission-er/