Bitcoin mining operations in Chelan County are about to be charged extra for the electrical energy they use.
County PUD Commissioners authorized the transfer this week which is able to improve power prices for Bitcoin mining by about 29 p.c.
The companies are being bumped up from the high-density load price schedule to the newly created cryptocurrency price schedule (also referred to as Price 36), which Commissioner Garry Arseneault calls floor breaking.
“What we did as a fee, and what we did as a utility was trade main, to create a brand new price for this kind of demand,” mentioned Arseneault.
The bitcoin mining operations are being moved to the next price than all different clients as a result of they eat a lot greater quantities of electrical energy.
Douglas County now not permits any such new companies to start out up as a result of bitcoin mining already consumes 25 p.c of the county PUD’s obtainable power.
Chelan PUD Commissioners initially adopted the upper price for crypto-currency clients again in 2018.
It was scheduled to enter impact in January, however was delayed till June. It would now take impact on June 1 after a PUD Fee vote on Monday.
Commissioners additionally licensed transition contracts for 3 eligible bitcoin miners as a result of they already had substantial funding of their operation when price 36 was adopted.
The essential and demand fees for cryptocurrency price schedule clients are topic to the identical 3% common price improve as all clients. This improve was efficient June 1.
