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On Wednesday, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) ruled that municipal power companies could charge higher electricity rates to cryptocurrency miners who try to benefit from the state's abundance of cheap hydroelectric power.
Over the years, Bitcoin's soaring price has drawn entrepreneurs to mining. Bitcoin mining enterprises have become massive endeavors, consuming megawatts of power on some grids. To minimize the cost of that considerable power draw, mining companies have tried to site their operations in towns with cheap electricity, both in the US and around the world. In the US, regions with the cheapest energy tend to be small towns with hydroelectric power. (Politico recently wrote extensively about the Bitcoin mining boom in Washington state's mid-Columbia valley, a hotspot for cheap hydro.)
But mining booms in small US towns are not always met with approval. A group of 36 municipal power authorities in northern and western New York petitioned the PSC for permission to raise electricity rates for cryptocurrency miners because their excessive power use has been taxing very small local grids and causing rates to rise for other customers.
[...] Ultimately, the PSC decided that municipal power authorities will be allowed to increase rates for customers whose maximum demand exceeds 300kW or whose load density "exceeds 250kWh per square foot per year."
Singling out a power-hungry industry for rate increases isn't without precedent. In Boulder County, Colorado, for example, marijuana growers are charged an extra $0.0216 per kWh because they use so much power to run grow lights, ventilation systems, and air conditioners for their plants.
Source: Ars Technica
(Score: 5, Insightful) by KiloByte on Sunday March 18 2018, @09:50PM (5 children)
While this particular use is not worth praise, changing the rules to drop power neutrality will immediately get abused.
Go enough this way, and your power bill will increase for the time you used your computer to watch porn (and you'll be required to install appropriate monitoring so you can be billed accordingly).
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pino P on Sunday March 18 2018, @10:16PM
As described in the summary, the PSC's ruling still appears neutral: A subscriber drawing unusually large peak power (300 kW per subscriber) or sustained intensity (250 kWh/ft2/year, or equivalently 307 W/m2) will get surcharged.
[ Showing my work: 250 kWh/ft^2/year * (1000 W/kW) * (1 ft/.3048 m) * (1 ft/.3048 m) * (1 day/24 h) * (1 year/365.2425 days) = 307.0 W/m2, which is in units of intensity [wikipedia.org]. ]
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday March 18 2018, @10:52PM
Maybe I'm not thinking right, but I've just never been interested in crypto coin that proved someone did a meaningless calculation.
OTOH there's some Gridcoin projects that might get my cycles if I ever wanted to burn my CPU/GPU/power, at least the computing power actually accomplishes something.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday March 19 2018, @11:58AM (2 children)
There'll be an extra-low "family" tariff for those who maintain "family values" in their computer use habits, and in order to qualify for the discount you'll need to install the monitoring app. Of course the burdon this will place on the energy company's income will mean that prices will have to go up across the board. But no, there will never be a penalty for watching porn, of course not, that would be absurd.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday March 20 2018, @04:26PM (1 child)
>Of course the burdon this will place...
please don't let you be misunderstood ;)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 20 2018, @04:37PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves