US mandates crypto energy reporting: will data centers be next?

In our report on the EU’s updated Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the associated data center energy information collection framework (EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive: proposed reporting revisions), we speculated that other regions or countries may follow suit and set out to collect information to monitor data center energy use. When Uptime Intelligence published the report in December 2023, we did not expect the US to be the next country to initiate such requirements.

Rising concerns about cryptocurrency mining energy use have led the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) to launch a six-month emergency data reporting mandate (on January 26, 2024) to obtain information from 82 cryptocurrency mining companies. The emergency order which was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requires cryptocurrency miners to provide information detailing their monthly energy consumption, average and maximum electricity demand, energy suppliers, mining unit counts, and the hash rate (compute power of a blockchain network) at each of their operating locations from February 2024 to July 2024. The order is expected to capture information from 150 facilities.