The Public Utility Commission of Texas has approved ERCOT’s ‘Batch Zero’ system for allocating electrical capacity, boosting shares of Cipher, Riot, and Core Scientific.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved on Thursday the new “Batch Zero” framework developed by ERCOT to manage grid connection requests from large industrial consumers. The decision pushed up the share prices of several Bitcoin mining companies operating in Texas that are converting their campuses into artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure, according to a report by The Block.

Cipher Digital (CIFR) hit a new all-time high of $30 on Thursday, gaining more than 10%. Core Scientific (CORZ) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) rose 3% and 2.2% respectively. The rally reflects industry operators’ expectations that the new system will simplify and accelerate grid access for high energy-consumption projects.

The problem the framework aims to solve is significant: ERCOT currently has more than 438,000 megawatts of proposed demand in its connection queue, approximately 90% of which comes from data centers. The old system evaluated requests one by one, proving too slow to handle a wave of this magnitude. With the new batch approach, the agency will be able to “assess how all projects interact with each other and with the existing grid, producing a single, coordinated picture of the necessary transmission upgrades.”

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