A winter storm threatening to pelt most of the southern US with ice and heavy snow this weekend could see Bitcoin miners curtail their operations until the front has passed.
American weather forecasting company AccuWeather reported on Thursday that a “massive winter storm” could extend for 1,800 miles from far west Texas to the mid-Atlantic coast, cutting power, preventing travel in over a dozen states and affecting upwards of 60 million people.
When large storms have caused havoc to power grids in the past, Bitcoin miners have powered down to ease the load on the grid. In 2022, when a major winter storm hit Texas, crypto miners across the state voluntarily curtailed their activities.
Daniel Batten, a Bitcoin (BTC) environmental, social and governance researcher, told Cointelegraph that miners will likely do the same thing again.
“I think that with extreme weather events becoming more common in jurisdictions throughout the world, the need for Bitcoin mining loadbalancing, particularly as more solar and wind go onto grids, is only going to increase,” he added.
Bitcoin miners can help stabilize power grids through load balancing by acting as a fast, controllable demand response. Miners set up near wind or solar installations and ramp up to soak up surplus power and shut down when the grid tightens.
A Tuesday report from the Digital Assets Research Institute suggested Bitcoin mining has saved Texas around $18 billion by eliminating the need for new gas peaker plants.
Bitdeer doesn’t expect the storm to shut it down
Singapore-based miner Bitdeer, which operates over 293,000 rigs globally, including in Texas and other US locations, told Cointelegraph that it doesn’t anticipate the storm causing a huge disruption to its rigs.
“Storms typically do not directly impact our operations. We have standard operating procedures as the season changes, such as winterizing of pipes. The site team monitors the weather situation, so they are responsive,” a Bitdeer spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas considers Bitcoin miners “large flexible loads,” meaning they can curtail their electricity usage on request, unlike other industrial electricity users with firm electrical demands.
“Bitdeer stands ready to fully support the grid should supply constraints occur,” they said.
US miners control the largest share of hashrate
Miners are the backbone of the Bitcoin network. They validate and record all Bitcoin transactions into new blocks. The more miners participate, the higher the hashrate, which helps secure the network.
The US is home to a large chunk of the world’s mining power, with Bitcoin mining data platform Hashrate Index estimating the country controls nearly 38% of the global hashrate.
Some of the largest miners in the US include Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Platforms.
There are also a large number of facilities in the US. The federal Energy Information Administration found in 2024 that there were upwards of 137 crypto-mining facilities in the US, with the largest concentrations in Texas, Georgia and New York.
Magazine: 7 reasons why Bitcoin mining is a terrible business idea
