RiotBlockchain, one of Texas's largest Bitcoin mining operations, earned $9.5 million in power credits last month by turning off its miners.
According to the company's monthly report, Riot curtailed its energy consumption in order to ensure more power would be available to ERCOT, which supplies power to 25 million Texans.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot, said that ERCOT saw energy demands reach all-time highs in July. In order to ensure more power would be available to the state, the company curtailed 11,717 megawatt hours, enough to power over 13,000 average homes in Texas for a month.
We are pleased to report that Riot demonstrated the effectiveness of its power strategy during the month of July. He said that the Company has consistently pursued low-cost, large-scale access to power under its long-term fixed rate power contracts, which gives it the ability to support ERCOT and release capacity back into the grid when power demand in Texas is high.
While curtailing power consumption reduced Riot's production ofBitcoin by around 21% MoM, it also decreased the company's monthly power costs. In July, Riot produced a total of 318 BTC, raising its total holdings to 6,696 BTC. The company sold 275 BTC in the same month and earned $5.6 million.
The company earned around $9.5 million in power credits because of the 11,717 MWh of power. Riot earned more by turning off its miners than it would by continuing to mine, with $1,122 earned per MWh curtailed. If the company had directed the energy to mining BTC instead, they would have earned approximately $140 per MWh, according to Arcane Research.
Arcane noted that Riot s July curtailment shows the power ofBitcoin miners when stabilizing electric grids. Despite the fact that mining is an extremely energy-intensive operation, it can be quickly and easily adjusted with a high level of precision. Similar energy-intensive industrial operations aren't nearly as flexible when it comes to reducing their consumption, making miners an unmatched alternative to stabilizing stressed grids.