Texas utility commission sues Texas attorney general to avoid releasing data on crypto companies’ power use

A newspaper’s request for public information about data on cryptocurrency mining led to a lawsuit filed by the Texas Public Utility Commission against Attorney General Ken Paxton who contended the information should be released.

The request came from the Texas Tribune and some other news outlets but the Public Utility Commission argued the release of the information could lead to acts of terrorism. So it filed suit after the request was made by the Tribune and Straight Arrow News.

What prompted the requests was the growing number of data centers in Texas and the following impact on the electric grid. Data centers use huge amounts of electrical power and their growth will only draw more power from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. While one official at ERCOT suggested the cryptocurrency mining might draw an estimated 2,600 megawatts of power from the brid, the exact data has never been provided to the public.

As the Texas Tribune recently reported, the utility company AEP recently announced that 5,000 more megawatts of cryptocurrency mines are planned to connect to the grid in the company’s service territory within Texas. That would equate to adding the load of the city of Austin again. Twice.

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