There is a reason to sweat other than the ongoing bear market for cryptocurrencies. The only star state's electricity system kindly asked big energy users to leave the grid when the power usage inevitably spikes due to the high temperatures. One of the big energy users is thecryptocurrencies. Major mining operations have agreed to turn off their power-hungry systems so they don't have to pay taxes in Texas. Satan was sweating last month because of the heat in the state. The heat wave is expected to last through this week. CNN reported that dozens of heat records could be broken before the weekend due to the high temperatures. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas asked residents and businesses to conserve electricity due to high demand. A lot of the wind power the state depends on has been knocked out due to the heat dome. The Texas Blockchain Council, an industry association which represents over 40 corporate members and individual companies, said their members were briefly flipping the switch on their operations that would free up 1% of the Texas grid. The president of the council said they were trying to be good citizens. There is an economic incentive to power down when electricity demand is high. The biggest mining operation in the state said they were cutting power. The company said they would reduce power again when the grid needs to be stable. Even these kind gestures are critical to the future of Texas. ERCOT expects to see an increase in demand for power by the middle of next year, equivalent to the power of all homes in Houston. The miners have agreed to power down during hot spells, even if it means they don't mine as much. Despite how much power these companies might suck from the grid, the leaders of ERCOT told The Block they would have enough generation to meet demand. You don't have to look too far back to see how often the grid's forecasts fail.
Riot has been operating in Texas since taking over the Whinstone US mining company in 2021. The need to maintain efficiency and keep energy requirements in check is what the CEO said in the recent video. It becomes a balancing act because the main motive is money, not the local energy demands.
Despite the obvious issues with how hot Texas often becomes, crypto mining operations have flooded the state, being incentivized by pro-crypto lawmakers and a de regulated energy infrastructure. The CEO of Marathon told The Block that high temperatures in Austin would lead to more air conditioning, increasing the overall electricity demands. Even if they were asked to shut down, they would still be up 90 percent of the time. Their attachment to the grid is a symbiotic relationship.
Depending on the efficacy of these miners for their extremely power hungry operations seems like a lot to hope for, considering they were already willing to brave the heat of Texas summers just for the chance to settle down in a laissez faire environment. More and more places are not willing to accept these operations. China has declared that New York's partial moratorium is illegal.
The small but energy rich country of Kazakhstan had already faced issues when it struggled to simultaneously cope with the power demands of the miners and warm their homes.
The market is in a bear position. Time will tell how long ERCOT can keep up this tag-team energy juggling routine before the strain on the energy grid causes the state to suffer.
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