Cipher Digital secures 3.2 GW of conditional ERCOT classifications across Texas projects
The power and data center developer can now tap 1.4 GW of capacity at two key sites before transmission infrastructure is even built.
Cipher Digital just got the green light to start drawing serious power from the Texas grid, even before the wires are fully in place to support it. On September 15, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued conditional Batch Zero classifications covering 3.2 GW of Cipher’s proposed projects, split between 1.1 GW of Conditional Base Load and 2.1 GW of Conditional Studied Load.
What ERCOT actually approved
The 1.1 GW of Conditional Base Load breaks down into two projects: 100 MW at Stingray and a full gigawatt at Colchis.
The 2.1 GW of Conditional Studied Load spans four sites. Mikeska accounts for 500 MW, Apollo for 900 MW, Stingray Phase II adds another 200 MW, and McLennan rounds it out at 500 MW.
The more immediately actionable piece is the PCLR qualification. ERCOT determined that 1.4 GW across Mikeska and Apollo qualifies as Partial Capacity Load Requirement, which means Cipher can use the full load at those two sites before transmission buildout is complete. The trade-off: Cipher accepts the risk of curtailment, meaning ERCOT can throttle their power consumption during periods of grid stress.
The bigger picture for Cipher’s pipeline
ERCOT had sent provisional classifications around September 3, and Cipher has been in ongoing discussions with transmission service providers since then. A comprehensive audit scheduled for December 2026 will determine the final designations.
Cipher already has meaningful operational capacity in Texas. The company runs 807 MW of energized infrastructure across three sites: Barber Lake at 300 MW, Black Pearl at 300 MW, and Odessa at 207 MW. On top of that, 270 MW has received full interconnection approval at Reveille (70 MW) and Ulysses (200 MW).
The news moving money, markets, and the world—before your day starts.
Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.
The company is also developing natural-gas laterals capable of supporting up to 2.5 GW of on-site generation. That behind-the-meter generation capacity gives Cipher the ability to power facilities with its own gas-fired generation when grid power is unavailable or uneconomical.
Why the AI infrastructure angle matters
Cipher (NASDAQ: CIFR) started life closer to the crypto mining world but has been steadily pivoting toward AI and HPC infrastructure. A Bitcoin mining operation can flex its power consumption up and down without consequence. AI training runs and inference workloads are far less forgiving, making the Base Load designation at Colchis and Stingray particularly valuable for enterprise AI customers and hyperscalers requiring consistent power availability.
The PCLR qualification at Mikeska and Apollo lets Cipher begin operations and potentially start generating revenue from those sites before full transmission upgrades are complete, subject to curtailment risk.
What comes next
The December 2026 audit is when ERCOT will issue final designations, converting these conditional classifications into permanent ones, or potentially revising them. Transmission service providers are still reviewing the projects, and their assessments could influence the final outcome.
ERCOT’s interconnection queue has swollen with requests totaling hundreds of gigawatts from data center developers. Cipher’s 3.2 GW of conditional classifications, combined with its 2.5 GW of planned behind-the-meter generation, represents one of the larger qualified power portfolios among publicly traded data center developers in Texas.