President Trump reportedly plans to announce an emergency power auction to encourage tech companies to finance new power plants.
This initiative is aimed at alleviating soaring electricity costs. This plan could have implications for both the crypto sector and the broader economy in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections.
What is President Trump’s emergency power auction?
According to Bloomberg, President Trump, along with the governors of several states in the northeastern United States, is urging PJM, the nation’s largest power grid operator, to hold an electricity auction. Lobbying from the administration and state leaders is expected to take the form of a non-binding “declaration of principles.”
President Trump’s National Energy Control Council will sign the document along with the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and several other states.
The initiative would see tech companies bid for 15-year contracts to build new power plants. The deal could underpin the development of about $15 billion worth of new power plants, with technology companies paying the cost regardless of whether they use the electricity they generate.
PJM provides power to more than 67 million people in regions from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest. The company already has one of the world’s largest data centers concentrated specifically in Northern Virginia.
National energy crisis prompts emergency intervention
The proposed emergency bid would represent a major intervention in the U.S. energy market. Since taking office, President Trump has repeatedly emphasized falling oil and gasoline prices. But as demand continues to increase, electricity prices are moving in the opposite direction.
An increasing proportion of that demand is coming from large data centers. The government and technology companies say these are essential to economic expansion and maintaining America’s competitiveness in artificial intelligence.
However, they also lead to soaring household electricity bills. In September 2025, average retail electricity prices in the U.S. rose 7.4% to 18.07 cents per kilowatt-hour, a record high. Household electricity prices have further increased.
Prices rose 10.5% from January to August 2025, one of the largest increases in more than a decade, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
“The ongoing electricity crisis we are facing due to AI demands will only get worse without intervention,” the Kobeissi Letter writes.
Impact on Bitcoin miners
Moreover, the power race is now favoring the operation of artificial intelligence. Bitcoin miners, which once relied on cheap electricity for a competitive advantage, are being supplanted by AI data centers locking in long-term power contracts.
In Texas, large-scale electricity demand will reach 226 gigawatts in 2025. Remarkably, AI companies now account for around 73% of new applications, overtaking Bitcoin miners. Power companies prefer AI data centers because they require continuous, reliable power and pay higher rates.
This economic reality is forcing major miners like Galaxy Digital, CleanSpark, and IREN to adapt. In November, Bitfarms also announced plans to convert a mining facility in Washington state to support HPC/AI workloads.
“We believe that converting just our Washington site to GPU-as-a-Service has the potential to exceed the net operating income we have historically generated from Bitcoin mining, providing us with a solid cash flow foundation to fund operating expenses, general and administrative expenses, debt service, and contribute to capital expenditures to wind down our Bitcoin mining operations in 2026 and 2027,” said Ben Gagnon, Chief Executive Officer of BitFarms.
🛠 The reality of Bitcoin mining today
One miner shared his current results. He runs 27 ASIC devices and earns about $4,800 a month (about $0.053 BTC). After electricity and hosting costs, the net profit is just over $1,000.
Over three and a half years, mining has simply produced comparable returns… pic.twitter.com/rlGhPzofPk
— MonkeyPuppet (@MonkeyPupp) January 12, 2026
Therefore, if electricity prices do indeed come down as a result of President Trump’s proposed emergency power auction, Bitcoin miners would benefit on a simple economic level. Mining profitability is related to electricity prices.
Lower electricity prices reduce operating costs and increase profit margins. Therefore, increases in power generation capacity that ease supply constraints could provide indirect relief to miners, especially in regions exposed to the highest price pressures.
This could also slow the ongoing transition to AI-centric infrastructure and allow some mining operations to remain competitive rather than pivoting to HPC workloads. At the same time, the proposal focuses on long-term investments in new electricity. This means that its effects do not appear immediately, but gradually.
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