It’s officially too hot for crypto mining in Texas

Crypto-mining in Texas is pulling at the collar, and now finds another reason to sweat than the lingering crypto bear market. Temperatures in Texas are expected to go well above 100 degrees this week, and the lone star state’s power system has asked large energy users to please jump off the grid when power consumption inevitably increases. One of the major energy users is, of course, the crypto miners.

Major bitcoin mining operations have agreed to shut down their power-hungry systems in order not to pay taxes Texas. The state has already seen temperatures so hot that Satan sweated last month. This last heat wave began in early July and is expected to last beyond this week. The temperatures have regularly blown past 100and It reported CNN that dozens of heat records can be broken before the weekend.

The operator of Texas’ the power gridElectric Reliability Council of Texas — AKA ERCOT—asked residents and businesses Monday to try to save some electricity during rush hour, citing record high demand for electricity. The so called “heating dome“Covering Texas has also knocked out much of the wind power the state depends on, leaving much of the renewable energy production to solar panels.

Texas Blockchain Council, an industry association representing more than 40 corporate members and individual crypto companies, said The Verge their members turned short on the switch on their operations that would reportedly free up 1% of the Texas Grid. Council President Lee Bratcher told reporters they were trying to be a “good” citizen.Not only that, but online prices go up in the air when there is a high demand for electricity, so there is another financial incentive to switch off during high periods.

At the same time, Riot Blockchain, the state’s largest mining company, said they were limiting power. The company retweeted a statement saying their massive Rockdale center reduced power on July 10 to 6 p.m. 22.00, and added that they would do it again when the network needs to be stabilized again.

Yet even these friendly gestures are an even more critical future for Texans. Bloomberg reported Monday that ERCOT expects these crypto miners to increase demand by up to six gigawatts by the middle of next year, equivalent to the power of all homes in Houston. These miners have already accepted ERCOT’s requests to shut down during hot periods, even if it means extracting less crypto than usual.

ERCOT leaders told Blocks back in June that despite how much power these companies can suck from the grid, they claim that they would have “sufficient generation to meet expected demand”. Although you do not have to look too far in the past to see how often the grid is own forecasts fail.

Companies like Riot, which has been operating in Texas since taking over the US bitcoin mining company Whinstone in 2021, often have heat on their heads. CEO Jason Les said in a recent response video to a Reddit AMA that they are considering going against immersion cooling for the rigs at their facilities, but it is always dampened by the need to maintain efficiency and keep energy needs in check. In fact, it becomes a balancing act for bitcoin mining, and the main motive is always money, not the local energy need.

Despite the obvious problems with how hot Texas often gets, crypto mining has flooded the stateencouraged by cryptocurrencies legislators and a deregulated energy infrastructure. The cost / benefit analysis for these companies must have taken into account the state’s obvious preference for extreme temperatures, but CEO of the blockchain company Marathon, Fred Thiel, told The Block that high temperatures in a city like Austin would have cou.This leads to more air conditioning, which increases the total power demand. Thiel said that ERCOT can ask them to close, they would do so, and probably they will still be up 90% of the time, even with temperature increases. He further called their connection to the grid “a symbiotic relationship. “

Depending on the efficiency of these miners for their extremely power-hungry operations, it seems like a lot to hope for, given that they were already willing to brave the heat of Texas summers just for the opportunity to settle in a lloosely regulated environment. It is fewer and fewer places who are willing to accept these operations as well. New York is close to issuing a partial moratorium, and China has in practice declared them illegal.

Bitcoin mining in particular has long been incredible energy-intensive operationsand the small but “energy-rich” country of Kazakhstan had already faced problems when it struggled to tackle at the same time with the power requirements of crypto miners and warming their homes during a cold winter.

Meanwhile, the crypto market remains largely in bear status across the board. So yes, these crypto mining operations have reason to play ball with ERCOT to save one of the few remaining bastions for crypto mining, but time will tell how long both can sustain this tag-team energy juggling routine before the load on the energy network makes the state suffer nok and brutal blackout.