A methodology for regulating power supplied to a powered component based on hardware performance, such as may be used in a system that includes the powered component and a switching regulator (EMU or energy management unit) configured to supply a regulated supply voltage to the powered component. Performance monitoring circuitry generates a performance monitoring signal corresponding to a detected performance level of selected digital operations of the powered component relative to a reference performance level. Switching control circuitry provides a switching control signal in response to the performance monitoring signal. In an example embodiments, the switching control circuitry for the switching regulator (switching transistor) is integrated into the powered component, and the detected performance level corresponds to a detected signal path delay associated with the digital operations of the powered component.