Riot Blockchain, Inc. is a company that both hosts and mines bitcoin units. In a recent announcement, the company said it received more than $9 million from the Texas state power grid manager to cut back on its mining efforts and give the state a break as it reached peak energy demand from residents and businesses alike.
Riot Blockchain Is Willing to Compromise
Riot Blockchain is one of the largest, most well-known crypto mining facilities in the world. In a recent interview, Jason Les – the CEO of Riot – explained:
As energy demand in ERCOT [Electric Reliability Council of Texas] reached all-time highs this past month, the company voluntarily curtailed its energy consumption in order to ensure that more power would be available in Texas. Riot curtailed a total of 11,717 megawatt hours in July.
According to ERCOT, roughly one megawatt can power as many as 200 separate homes at the same time during peak demand. The organization is now willing to offer financial rewards in the form of energy credits like it did for Riot to any company that’s willing to cut back on its energy use so Texas can have a few moments to pick itself back up.
Texas has been going through something of an energy crisis as of late. Not long ago, bitcoin miners were asked to cut back on their energy use as the state was going through a terrible heatwave. This meant everybody had their air conditioning units going 24 hours a day, and this was deemed not only bad for the environment, but dangerous in that it was putting the energy grid on its last legs.
Texas has been stuck in this rut for the past year or so given how many miners have left China to take advantage of the state’s cheap electricity prices. China shocked the world in 2021 during the summer when it announced it was going to make all crypto mining and related activity illegal, meaning anyone caught in the act would face fines and even prison sentences.
As a result, many had to close their shops and find new places to set up their industries. Texas seemed like an ideal place given how inexpensive its electricity can be, and while the moves have done good things for the Lone Star State’s economy, its energy grid has been put in a bad place.
Saving Money and Giving Energy Back
Les further stated:
Curtailing the company’s power consumption reduced BTC production by an estimated 21 percent in July, but also significantly reduced Riot’s power costs for the month. By providing power back into the ERCOT grid during periods of peak demand, the company estimates that power credits and other benefits from curtailment activities totaled an estimated $9.5 million, significantly outweighing the reduction in BTC mined.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/riot-blockchain-earns-a-lot-of-money-for-scaling-back-crypto-mining-energy-use/