In an embodiment, a power control circuit for an execute circuit is configured to monitor power consumption of operations in a pipeline of the execute circuit and potential changes in power consumption if new operations are issued into the pipeline. The power control circuit may be configured to inhibit issuance of a given operation if the change in power consumption is greater than a maximum increase. A decaying average of previous power consumptions may be maintained and compared to the potential increase in power consumption to control the rate of change in power consumption over time.