Cryptocurrency transactions may only incur transaction fees. The electricity used for these transactions is more than what countries like Argentina and Australia consume in a year.
According to the White House Office of Science and Technology, published estimates of total global electricity consumption for cryptocurrency assets like Bitcoin range from 120 to 240 billion kilowatt hours. The United States leads in these indicators.
Financial and business experts are discussing the implications of cryptocurrencies and mining, but so far little attention has been paid to the impact of these activities on the grid and energy consumption.
A professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University and co-director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, Dr. LeCe is at the center of efforts to understand how cryptocurrency mining impacts the power grid and how to use it. . This information aids research, education and policy development.
As technology improves, allowing users to do more with less effort, cryptocurrency mining is computationally intensive, and the hash rate of the blockchain network continues to grow.
In the year During the 2022 heat wave in Texas, Xi and his colleagues found an 18% decline in global cryptocurrency mining. The outage comes amid pressure on the Texas power grid, and the Texas Electric Reliability Council is urging electric customers to conserve electricity.
“There appears to be a very strong negative correlation between mineral demand and overall system-wide net demand,” Xie said. “Cryptocurrency miners go offline when the network is under stress, which demonstrates the volatility of demand.”
For example, when the electrical grid is overloaded with heat, homeowners use more air conditioning and, consequently, more energy. Compared to this type of continuous demand, cryptocurrency mining demand shows good potential to provide flexibility when maximum energy consumption is needed in other industries.
Their findings were published in the March issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation and the June issue of Applied Energy Advances .
In these papers, Xie and his students provide data that represents the first step toward understanding the carbon footprint of these mining operations and their impact on grid reliability and wholesale electricity prices. Finally, location matters and many factors come into play in this complex discussion.
“Increasing fixed demand will always reduce the reliability of the grid,” Xie said. “However, cryptocurrency mining is considered a dynamic load that can be lost during times of stress, which will have a positive effect on network reliability.”
Xie leads the Energy and Blockchain Research Consortium, a collaboration between Texas A&M researchers and industry partners. Its mission is to provide an objective and comprehensive resource to inform the latest developments at the intersection of blockchain and energy.
While cryptocurrencies are still in their infancy, one thing is certain: as this emerging business sector continues to grow, increasing energy consumption will be key. With this in mind, Xie continues his research into a solution that uses blockchain-enabled technologies to keep the network strong.
Media Contact : Abigail DeFily, a.oliphant642@tamu.edu
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