It is no secret that mining for cryptocurrency like Bitcoin will require a lot of electricity, which is why sometimes it has been suggested that sometimes it might not necessarily be worth all the energy and money spent setting up a mining rig as the operational costs could cost more. That being said, those in New York will soon have to start paying more.
The New York State Public Service Commission has recently announced that municipal power companies can charge higher electricity rates to cryptocurrency miners. Prior to this, a group of municipal power authorities had actually petitioned New York’s PSC for permission on raising the electricity rates for cryptocurrency miners, and now it looks like their wish has come true.
This is due to the fact that like we said, mining cryptocurrency takes up a lot of energy which can strain small local grids, which in turn causes rates to increase for other residents.
For example over in the Village of Akron, the power demanded by companies that are mining cryptocurrency accounted for 33% of the lower power company’s load. The PSC also notes that in some places, the monthly bills for residents saw an increase of nearly $10 because of cryptocurrency companies basing their mining operations there.
As ArsTechnica points out, in Boulder County, Colorado, marijuana growers are charged a higher electricity rate due to the power they consume to run equipment like lights, ventilation systems, air conditioners, and more, so there is precedent for a hike in electricity rates for particularly power-hungry industries.
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