TD₿: Bitcoin Mining & The Grid (Part 2): Transmission, Curtailment, and Behind-The-Meter by Blake King
TL;DR Bitcoin mining continues to show in real-time how it can be incorporated into our grid infrastructure to make it more resilient.
Hey Bitcoiners,
Texas has been experiencing a scorching heat wave that is pushing its electrical grid to the brink. In response to the increased demand on the grid, Bitcoin miners made the news when they shut down their operations to give around 1 GW of power back to Texas’s grid during this trying time.
Nearly all the industrial-scale Bitcoin mining operations in Texas were shut down and this allowed for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use.
This highlighted Bitcoin miners’ unique ability to be a flexible load demand that can turn off with a flip of a switch when the grid experiences periods of peak demand like ERCOT is experiencing this week during this heat wave.
Furthermore, Bitcoin miners can be turned back on just as easily. This is evident when demand across the grid differs from region to region. Below is a chart that shows the real-time pricing of ERCOT. You can see how different price pockets exist and fluctuate across the state.
Notice above the areas in dark blue-purple where electricity prices are negative. Bitcoin miners act as energy consumers of last resort and can help prevent these critical utility providers from going out of business.
Other sources of demand cannot turn on/off as easily and require more infrastructure to operate. As a result, they can’t be as flexible as Bitcoin miners in their response to price changes on the grid.
A few issues ago, I shared the first part of Blake King’s series around Bitcoin mining and the electrical grid. Today I’d like to share the second part that digs into transmission, curtailment, and how electricity is priced in energy markets. (04/25/2022)
To see Bitcoin miners help the electrical grid in Texas during a time of need is encouraging to see. Bitcoin mining viewed through the lens of a beneficial technology for our degrading electrical grid infrastructure makes me very bullish for the future of Bitcoin and the USA.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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