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Bitcoin miners located in Texas reportedly suffered severe disruption of their operations due to a blizzard that battered the region.
The extreme weather conditions prompted them to switch off their machines to preserve the local power grid.
The Cold Winter in Texas Surprised Crypto Miners
As reported by Bloomberg, the ice storm that hit “the Lone Star State” damaged some of the equipment of the domestic bitcoin miners. Electricity consumption surged significantly due to the low temperatures, and those firms had to temporarily shut their businesses to protect the energy network.
The weather is still surprisingly cold in Texas, and the authorities enforced curtailment of electricity in some areas. Can Zhao – CMO of JDK Capital – explained how this affected his company:
“The duration of curtailments is about six hours a day, starting from Monday. We are seeing a 25% loss in computing power compared to a normal day for the site.”
Lee Bratcher – President of Texas Blockchain Council – said the worst-affected entities were the miners with mobile containers, “many of which were not designed to be weather-proof for the winter storms.”
Texas had to endure another blizzard around Christmas. One of the leading BTC miners in the region – Argo Blockchain – said the weather conditions significantly diminished its production power. It mined only 147 bitcoin in December, compared to 198 BTC in November.
The Summer Could Also Be Dangerous
Argo Blockchain, Riot Blockchain, and many other miners situated in Texas ceased operations last summer, too, when a heat wave with temperatures above 40 degrees (Celsius) hit the state.
Bratcher revealed that over 1,000 megawatts worth of bitcoin mining load were switched off to conserve energy for the power grid.
“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 explained.
Despite the weather anomalies, the state (with its friendly legislation and low cost of electricity) has emerged as one of USA’s crypto mining hubs.
As CryptoPotato previously reported, even some Chinese miners contemplated moving their businesses to the area due to the harsh environment in their homeland.