Riot reveals 17K miners offline because of Texas weather

The crypto mining company, Riot Platforms has reported that about 17,040 rigs deployed at its functioning in Texas were not online because of acute winter weather in the area.

In the publicization made on February 6, Riot reported that two of the buildings at its Whinstone facility in Rockdale, Texas were harmed in December as the area faced days of sub-zero temperatures. Between December 22 to Dember 25, temperatures in various parts of Texas, and the United States fell below freezing.

“A few sections of piping in Buildings F and G were harmed at the time of acute winter storms in Texas at the end of December,” as per the chief executive officer of Riot, Jason Les. As a consequence of this December, our formerly publicized target of attaining 12.5 in complete hash rate potential in quarter 1 of this year is anticipated to be prolonged.”

Les revealed that the harms in the initial phase reduced the facility’s hash rate capacity by 2.5 EH/s, with the firm later capable of restoring 0.6 EH/s after the repairs. As per the riot, there were 82,656 rigs functioning with a hash rate potential of 9.3 EH/s as of January 31, when the firm reported generating 740 Bitcoin, valuing almost $17 million at the time of writing.

Nonetheless, various parts of the United States faced various temperature falls in December in between holiday travel, big cities in Texas adding Dallas and Austin also experienced a major ice storm at the start of February. Thousands of inhabitants were without power and various tree branches and limbs broke from the weight of cumulated ice, harming power lines and cars and blocking roads.

The tweet

How bad is it? Massive trees are snapping due to the icy conditions.
As of Thursday morning, 150k+ Austin Energy customers remain without power.
Austin Energy will hold a press conference at 9 am. We’ll be streaming it live on @cbsaustin
pic.twitter.com/mb34QOnbZt
— John-Carlos Estrada (@Mr_JCE) February 2, 2023

It is not clear if Riot miners were likewise influenced by the storm. Although, the firm did not report reducing because of the demand on Texas’ energy grid at the time of the latest freeze.

Riot also reported selling 700 bitcoin for almost $13.7 million in the previous month, with the company holding 6,978 Bitcoin as of January 31. The mining company reported selling coins after the extreme heat in the Lone Star State in July 2022.

The same month, Riot said it planned to shift many of its mining rigs from a New York facility to Texas in an attempt to cut the company’s expenses.