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The Digital Energy Council (DEC) is an advocacy association focused on policy where energy infrastructure meets digital technologies, including digital asset mining and high-performance computing data centers. On April 17, 2026, the Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) announced that it had acquired DEC and that DEC would operate under CCI as a dedicated working group.
What is the Digital Energy Council?
DEC describes itself as a member association and nonprofit advocacy group focused on digital energy. Its stated policy aims include promoting energy development, grid resilience, U.S. competitiveness, and national security. It also says it promotes best practices for industry data collection and dissemination.
In practice, “digital energy” refers to the overlap between energy systems and digital applications. DEC’s policy work includes digital asset mining and high-performance computing data centers, which it connects to broader questions of grid modernization and resilience. DEC founder Tom Mapes offered a more informal explanation in a Nuclear Energy Institute interview: the idea is to monetize stranded energy assets by converting energy into crypto or Bitcoin, with newer AI integrations also entering the picture. That is one simplified example, not a complete definition of DEC’s policy scope.
What does DEC do?
DEC describes its work through four pillars:
- Education: informing policymakers and other stakeholders about digital energy and its relationship to energy infrastructure.
- Communication: conveying industry positions and policy priorities.
- Integration: connecting energy and digital-energy interests.
- Coordination: bringing stakeholders together around shared policy issues.
The council’s June 2024 submission to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee illustrates that scope: it discussed energy, digital asset mining, high-performance computing data centers, grid modernization, and resilience.
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What is DEC’s current status?
CCI announced on April 17, 2026, that it had acquired DEC and that DEC would operate as a dedicated working group under CCI. The announcement described the group’s focus as advancing policies related to energy development, grid resilience, U.S. competitiveness, and national security. CCI named Hunter Budd as DEC’s interim executive director during the integration. This describes the status announced on that date; it does not establish that every operational integration step has since been completed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What figures has DEC cited about electricity use?
In an April 9, 2025 congressional letter, DEC said digital technologies use approximately 2–3% of total U.S. electricity and attributed that estimate to NERC’s 2024 Long-Term Reliability Assessment. The same letter cited a 151-gigawatt estimated demand increase in reference to that assessment. These are figures reported by DEC in its letter; the underlying NERC assessment has not been independently reviewed here, so they should not be treated as independently verified estimates.
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Sources
- DEC mission
- DEC About page
- CCI announcement, April 17, 2026
- DEC submission to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, June 2024
- DEC congressional letter, April 9, 2025
- Nuclear Energy Institute interview with Tom Mapes
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