Crypto currency miners are accelerating their push to expand in Texas far beyond what authorities had initially expected, threatening to send the state’s electricity use skyrocketing.
Enough miners have applied to connect to Texas’s power grid to use up to 33 gigawatts of electricity, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs the system, said in an email Friday. That’s a third more than what the grid operator’s chief executive officer said in April that officials were preparing to handle over the next decade. It’s also enough to power all of New York State.
A spokeswoman for the grid operator, known as Ercot, said officials expect to have enough power plants available to meet any rise in demand. The miners will need approval from Ercot before connecting to the grid.
