The current geopolitical crisis situation places energy management as a major international issue. And each country is trying to limit future power cuts by developing priority strategies. A list that obviously does not include cryptocurrency miners. As proof, the public supplier Hydro-Quebec just filed a request to stop distributing power to the blockchain industry.
The question is legitimate in this period of energy crisis. Is it better to be able to heat homes in the province of Quebec than to mine Bitcoin? The problem is that nothing is that simpl(ist)e. Because even if some consider this energy consumption as useless, it is no more so than other areas yet spared by this decision. But it’s always easier to cut off the power to an industry that you don’t use.
Whatever happens, cryptocurrency miners – and the blockchain industry as a whole – are going to have to consider alternative solutions to resist such attacks. Because it seems that this type of strategy is spreading like a trail of gasoline at €2 per litre. With the latest example being Moldova, which is ahead of Europe in the field. And since yesterday the national giant Hydro-Quebec who wants to do the same…
Hydro-Quebec – Blockchain power cut
The information has cause for concern for players in the blockchain industry, largely confined to miners. Because Quebec’s public electricity supplier has just filed an official request with the Régie de l’énergie to cut off their power. In question, a forecast that anticipates “an increase of 25 terawatt hours (TWh) or 14% of the demand for electricity in Quebec over the period 2022-2032”.
” Given the significant increase in anticipated electricity demand and the tightening of energy and capacity balance sheets, Hydro-Québec filed an application with the Régie de l’énergie regarding the suspension of the award process to blockchain industry. »
Hydro-Quebec
With the main sectors concerned – excluding organic growth (+4.3 TWh) – the conversion of buildings/industrial processes (+4.5 TWh), emerging markets (+8.9 TWh) and new technologies (+7, 8 TWh). And, “as part of this process, around 270 MW were to be dedicated to cryptocurrency-related use in the short term. “A quantity which, according to Hydro-Quebec, “would increase the pressure on the current balances”. However, a simple passage of this figure in a converter makes it possible to understand that this only corresponds to 0.00027 TWh! What unbearable pressure…
A request that is part of the 2023-2032 electricity supply plan of the supplier Hydro-Québec. And that must still be validated by the Régie de l’énergie, the only authority able to decide on the effective and/or priority allocation of electricity on its territory. But for the moment nothing allows to know if it will or not be favorable to this request. But this is putting a little more pressure on a bitcoin mining sector already battered by the bear market.
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