> The agency also counts on bitcoin miners to soak up excess power when there’s too much supply, keeping prices in check.
And how does the Texas public benefit from this? Is "to soak up excess power" really that valuable?
And how does the Texas public benefit from this? Is "to soak up excess power" really that valuable?
Power demand follows daily sinusoidal cycles. By having an economical consumer of electricity that can choose operation times, you can have them use power at night in order to flatten your sinusoidal demand, thus allowing a higher percentage of efficient baseline units to run instead of peakers.
If the power draw is fluctuating around a level where one more power plant needs to be on during the high demand, but is is low enough during low demand for it to be dangerous to keep the plant running, it can be cheaper to just "soak up the extra" than to cycle the whole plant on and off.
hence why nat gas peakers are so valuable.
Unless you want to invest vast sums in energy storage then this is quite an efficient option.
The soaker being a shitcoin farm however does leave a sour taste in peoples mouths