An industry group said on Tuesday that large-scale bitcoin mining operations in Texas are back online after they were shut down earlier in the month because of high temperatures that caused electricity use to spike and cause power cuts.
All of the big bitcoin miners, which use supercomputers that use a lot of energy to mine for cryptocurrencies, stopped working last week because it was so hot in the Lone Star state and people and businesses turned up their air conditioners.
“The miners are all back on as of a few days ago,” said Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council. “ERCOT is back to normal operations with over 3,000 megawatts (MW) of spare capacity on the grid.”
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the grid for more than 26 million customers and accounts for about 90% of the state’s power load, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This week, the heatwave in Texas is expected to keep people’s air conditioners on high, which will cause them to use a lot of electricity.
