On Nov. 29, 2022, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) published a report on seasonal assessment and resource adequacy for the ERCOT region. ERCOT’s study indicates that bitcoin mining operations are flexible operations that can be beneficial to the Texas grid during the upcoming winter and extreme peak load times.
ERCOT Report Says Texas Bitcoin Mining Facilities Can Curtail Operations and Relieve 1.7 GW of Energy This Winter
The American organization that operates Texas’s electrical grid, ERCOT, has published a study that shows bitcoin mining operations are instrumental in direct response systems. The report’s researchers studied the installed generation capacity based on historical data and extreme peak load scenarios. The report indicates that bitcoin mining operations are able to curtail their operations and relieve roughly 1.7 gigawatts (GW) of energy during the Texas winter.
Other systems that leverage large electrical loads are unable to adjust to direct response needs but bitcoin miners, on the other hand, are also known to shut down operations when they reach breakeven price levels between bitcoin’s spot price and cost of production. “This breakeven cost was estimated at $86/MWh and is based on the economics of an Antminer S19 bitcoin mining rig as of early November,” ERCOT’s study details.
ERCOT is not the only grid operator that has been studying direct response systems as the second-largest U.S. energy corporation, Duke Energy Corporation, was reportedly studying bitcoin mining in July. Duke’s lead analyst said that bitcoin mining operations partnered with Duke in order to provide data for a bitcoin demand response (DR) study. The same month, the bitcoin mining infrastructure provider Lancium revealed how its operations in Texas can curtail load in DR situations.
Lancium teamed up with the Texas battery-storage provider Broad Reach Power LLC, and when the grid is hit with extreme situations, batteries keep Lancium’s facility running without reducing its computational power. Besides heavy load times and extreme weather events, bitcoin miners provide a reliable stream of revenue to the grid’s operators because they are constantly running in search of bitcoins. ERCOT’s study shows that even with bitcoin miners leveraging electrical resources, the grid operators believe there will be a sufficient amount of energy this winter.
“Assuming that the ERCOT Region experiences typical winter grid conditions,…
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