Cipher Names Former ERCOT Executive as Head of Grid Strategies

Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR) has appointed former ERCOT executive Bill Blevins as head of grid strategies, adding a senior power-systems operator as the company scales its industrial data center pipeline in Texas and other US markets.

Blevins will lead Cipher’s grid strategy, including efforts to source and secure power and support the company’s development pipeline, the New York-based company said Tuesday. He will report to Will Iwaschuk, Cipher’s co-president and chief legal officer.

The appointment comes as power access, interconnection timing and grid operations have become central to the data center industry’s expansion. Cipher, previously known largely as a bitcoin miner, has increasingly positioned itself as a developer, owner and operator of industrial-scale data centers serving high-performance computing and AI workloads. That shift has made power strategy a core part of execution, particularly in Texas, where Cipher has built much of its operating base and development pipeline.

Blevins joins Cipher from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, where he served as director of grid coordination. During his time at ERCOT, he also held roles including manager of operations support and manager of operations planning, and was involved in grid operations as ERCOT transitioned to its nodal market in 2011.

Before ERCOT, Blevins worked at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK). His background spans more than three decades across grid operations, reliability and nuclear power, according to Cipher. In 2024, the Blevins Solar Project, a campus with 270 megawatts of solar generation and 180 megawatts, or 360 megawatt-hours, of battery storage, was named in his honor.

The role highlights how data center developers are increasingly competing not only on access to land, capital and customers, but also on their ability to navigate grid constraints. AI and high-performance computing campuses can require hundreds of megawatts of power at a single site, turning power procurement, transmission planning, curtailment capability and market participation into core commercial functions.

Cipher’s appointment of Blevins also follows a series of financing and development moves aimed at expanding its data center business. Earlier this month, the company priced an $810 million senior secured note offering through its Stingray Compute subsidiary to help finance the Stingray data center. That followed a broader push to convert Cipher’s power-backed site portfolio into contracted data center capacity for hyperscale and high-performance computing customers.