US energy data agency to begin tracking crypto mining power use

A bank of cryptocurrency miners operates at the Scrubgrass Plant in Kennerdale, Pennsylvania, U.S., March 8, 2022. Picture taken March 8, 2022. REUTERS/Alan Freed/File Photo

(Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday that it will provisionally start collecting the electricity consumption data from U.S. cryptocurrency mining companies.

"We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand," said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis.

(Reporting by Deep Vakil and Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)