A Sizzling Texas Turns Down Bitcoin Miners

A sizzling Texas has turned its power grid into overdrive recently, enforcing emergency procedures into action–affecting first and foremost, Bitcoin miners.

Excessive Heat Forces Mining Operations to Turn Down

Due to the excessive heat the lone star state suffered, several mining outfits were pushed to turn down their mining operations, albeit temporarily.

• Riot platforms made news today that it “had been paid” to shut down
• Marathon Digital reported a 9% drop in Bitcoin productions

Emergency Procedures Implemented by ERCOT

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was forced to implement emergency procedures during August to ensure that customers were never without energy as a heatwave scorched the state. ERCOT supplies power to roughly 25 million Texans, translating into 90% of the state’s grid load.

Bitcoin Mining and Energy Needs

Bitcoin mining can oftentimes be a somewhat obscure and controversial activity. Specialized computers known as ASICs plug into a plethora of energy sources and begin a competition to find a random number. On average, every ten minutes, one computer finds the number and is allowed to add the newest block of transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain. Currently, a Bitcoin miner receives 6.25 BTC for each block they add to the chain.

Bitcoin Miners Not Getting Paid to Shut Off

“To clarify, we are not getting paid to shut off,” said Jason Les, CEO of Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms.

Ancillary Services and Financial Incentives

Ancillary Services are purchased by ERCOT in the day-ahead market to balance the next day’s forecasted supply and demand of electricity on the grid and mitigate real-time operational issues. This also has a financial incentive for the miners. They can “either mine BTC or curtail energy when prices are high to sell it back to the grid,” giving them a better return than mining, along with being responsive to grid needs.

ERCOT as a Deregulated Market

As Les told Decrypt, “ERCOT is a deregulated market where energy is traded.” This means that “High prices are a market signal that the grid needs power.” He concluded that “Like any market, it represents demand nearing supply.”

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