Cryptocurrency transactions can be more expensive than just transaction fees. The electricity consumed by this transaction exceeds the consumption of some countries, Argentina and Australia, for a whole year.
According to the White House Office of Science and Technology, published estimates of total electricity consumption for cryptocurrency assets like Bitcoin range from 120 to 240 billion kWh per year. The United States leads these indicators.
Financial and economic experts have discussed the impact of cryptocurrencies and mining, but until recently little attention was paid to the impact of these activities on networks and energy consumption.
Dr. Le Cie, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University and Associate Director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, is at the center of this effort to understand how cryptocurrency mining affects power grids. and how the information can be harnessed. more research, education and policy development.
Even as technology improves and allows users to do more with less energy, cryptocurrency mining is computationally intensive and blockchain network performance measures or hash rates continue to rise.
During the heat of the Texas summer of 2022, Xi and his colleagues witnessed an 18% drop in global cryptocurrency mining. The decline was related to stress on the Texas power grid, prompting the Texas Electric Reliability Board to order electric consumers to conserve energy.
"There seems to be a very strong negative correlation between mining demand and total net demand at the system level," Xie said. "When the network is under stress, cryptocurrency miners shut down, showing the potential for elasticity of demand."
For example, when the power grid goes out due to a heat wave, homeowners use more air conditioners and therefore more energy. Compared to this kind of constant demand, cryptocurrency mining demand shows good potential to offer flexibility at times when peak power consumption in other sectors is crucial.
The findings are published in the March issue of IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation and in the June issue of Advances in Applied Energy .
In this article, Xi and his students provide data that allows a first step in examining the carbon footprint of these mining rigs and its impact on grid reliability and the wholesale price of electricity. Ultimately, location matters and many factors come into play in this complex discussion.
"The constant increase in demand will inevitably lead to the degradation of network reliability," Xie said. "However, by modeling cryptocurrency mining as a resilient load that can be turned off in times of stress, it can positively contribute to network reliability."
Xie leads the Texas A&M Blockchain and Energy Research Consortium, a collaboration between the Texas A&M research team and industry partners. Their mission is to provide a multidisciplinary and unbiased resource for reporting on the latest developments at the intersection of blockchain and energy.
Although cryptocurrencies are still in their infancy, one thing is certain. The increase in energy consumption will be important as this growing transactional industry continues to grow. With this in mind, Xie continues to look for solutions that help take advantage of blockchain-enabled technologies while ensuring the continuous operation of the network.
More information: Ali Menati et al., Modeling and Analysis of the Use of Cryptocurrency Mining for Demand Resilience in Power Systems. A synthetic case study of the Texas Grid, IEEE Transactions on Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation (2023). DOI: 10.1109/TEMPR.2022.3230953
Ali Menati et al., High-resolution modeling and analysis of the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the power grid. Carbon footprint, reliability and price of electricity, advances in applied energy (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.adapen.2023.100136
Feature : Texas Power Grid Crypto Mining Impact Study (May 22, 2023) Accessed May 24, 2023 from https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-effect-crypto-texas-power -grid.html
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