Heatwave forces Texas Bitcoin miners to shut down
Important takeaways
- Bitcoin miners shut down their machines following calls for energy savings from the Texas government in anticipation of a brutal heat wave.
- More than 1,000 megawatts of Bitcoin mining load were turned off, accounting for about 1% of the state’s total network capacity.
- Texas has become a major hub for Bitcoin mining following China’s general ban on crypto mining in 2021.
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Bitcoin miners are working with Texas authorities to help ease the state’s energy grid in anticipation of a heat wave; over 1000 megawatts of power allocated for Bitcoin mining are being diverted for retail and commercial use.
Texas Power Grid redirected
A heat wave is forcing Bitcoin miners in Texas to shut down.
According to Bloombergindustrial scale Bitcoin mining has turned off their machines in anticipation of one heat wave in central Texas. Such incidents usually drive up the price of electricity and at times put a heavy strain on the state’s electricity grid, as the demand for air conditioners increases with temperature.
Texas Blockchain Association President Lee Bratcher told Bloomberg that “over 1,000 megawatts worth of Bitcoin mining load” was turned off to comply with calls from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to save energy for the grid.
Bratcher said the load represented the quasi-totality of all industrial-scale Bitcoin mining in Texas; he also estimated that the move would allow “over 1% of [the] total network capacity »to be redirected to retail and commercial use.
ERCOT issued one request on Sunday for Texans and major electric customers to lower their power consumption from 19:00 to 01:00 UTC on Monday. It predicted The total power demand will exceed 79,000 megawatts, which will break the record set last Friday – 78,206 megawatts. At the time of writing, temperatures had reached 107 degrees Fahrenheit in Austin.
The United States became the best mining center in the world after China’s ban on crypto mining in 2021. Texas in particular, thanks to its low energy costs and friendly regulatory approach to crypto, is becoming particularly attractive to large mining companies. Argo Blockchain revealed in November last year plans to spend up to $ 2 billion on the construction of a Texan mine.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
