Texas Bitcoin Miners Suspend Operations Amid Heat Wave Threat To Power Grid

Texas-based Bitcoin BTC/USD miners responded to a request from The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) by suspending operations on Monday.

What Happened: Almost all Bitcoin miners in the state have powered down in light of the ongoing heatwave that has pushed the Texas power grid near a breaking point, Bloomberg reported.

See Also: WHAT IS BITCOIN MINING?

Over 1,000 megawatts in mining load have already been released from mining operations, said Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Association.

“This represents nearly all industrial scale Bitcoin mining load in Texas and allows for over 1% of total grid capacity to be pushed back onto the grid for retail and commercial use,” he said.

Texas has quickly become the destination of choice for Bitcoin miners including Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT, Argo Blockchain ARBKF, and Core Scientific Inc CORZ. The state used a record 78,206 megawatts of electricity on Friday.

See Also: How Bitcoin Miners Are Helping Texas Tackle The Heat Wave

Amid heightened concerns about a distressed power grid and the rising temperatures, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla’s automatic cabin overheat protection should make a “real difference” with record heatwaves.

Tesla’s automatic cabin overheat protection should make a real difference with record heatwaves.

Ability to adjust activation temperature coming with next software release.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2022

Photo by thomas eder on Shutterstock