Last year an unprecedented freeze hit Texas crippling the power grid. While it was know you be bad it was only later on that it came out that the entire grid was 9 minutes away from completely failing. If a complete failure has taken place it would have taken weeks or possibly months to relaunch the grid and provide power to customers. Sadly this lead to hundreds of deaths across the state as people actually froze to death something I never imagined happening in my state.
Once the storm cleared and temperatures increased investigations were launched into what happened and how to prevent it. Some causes were as basic as natural gas wells not being winterized when they should have been while others actually led to scientific discoveries as wind turbines were previously not know to freeze to the point of failure. This is due to the specific climate in Texas with high humidity even during freezes that created ice structures not seen on wind turbines before.
A few new regulations were passed and companies were required to winterize more of their equipment. There are a few plant operators though who are still being investigated and face possible litigation due to their plants being offline without notifying regulators before hand. These plants were thought to be running when they were not causing power to not be sent were it needed to be. Texas has really been embracing crypto and Bitcoin recently and this includes using miners as a stabilizing force.
Until recently I did not know that not only can grids fail due to lack of power but also when to much power is produced. This is where mining comes into play because with renewables like wind rapidly coming online plants needed somewhere to send the power and so Bitcoin miners have filled in to consume this excess power. Starting today Texas is getting hit by a pretty severe winter storm again and people are holding their breath after what happened last time.
Crypto miners though are already showing their benefits though as two major companies, Riot Blockchain and Compute North, have already begun to wind down operations allowing access power to build up for emergency needs! Some companies and projects have even bought our entire solar or wind farms and have promised to switch the power to the grid if need be creating almost a large battery of sorts! Where Texas has really I think gone above and beyond though is with how they have implemented this. Rather the require these companies to shut down it is voluntary and I think that is key. See by volunteering to do this all of these Bitcoin miners get a huge positive publicity wave! It’s good for them, the customers, and the government! The structure has created a way that everyone wins and it isn’t forced.
Now hopefully the storms will not be near as bad and so this will be more of a dry run then another emergency. It has already though provided huge benefits as Texas continues to lead the way in renewable power generation for the United States!
Please know I am not a financial advisor I am just someone who picked up on a trend and wanted to express it! Makes sure you always do your own research and never invest money you cannot afford to lose! If you enjoyed this article and would like to further support me below are a couple of referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
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