4 ms·

Maybe they can just price electricity at different tiers of use. Or home vs business rates. Charge crypto farms more, especially if the grid is struggling.

hardware2win 3y ago
Wat? There isnt already such a thing?
- runnerup 3y ago
  There is. Pricing is split mostly along residential vs. commercial vs. industrial although there’s a few more layers of discrimination based on usage patterns and “power factor” (reactive vs capacitive load).
runnerup 3y ago
Texas’ strategy is to encourage additional growth in the crypto mining sector because ostensibly they use a lot of power during off-peak days/hours which supports capital payback but also is flexible enough to turn off their load when the grid production is over stressed, so they theoretically won’t contribute to blackouts. Not sure if this thinking is fully correct, but on its face it’s at minimum not completely absurd. Also I think some of the Texas leadership is financially or emotionally invested in cryptocurrency.
one_level_deep2 3y ago
That would require admitting that the free market can't solve the problem, and likely makes it worse.
dcchambers 3y ago
Texas would never do anything that makes them appear 'anti-business' though. It goes against the entire political ethos of the folks in charge down there.
yalogin 3y ago
That doesn’t gel with lobbyists.
keep_reading 3y ago
They already do this. Commercial rates are cheaper than residential rates. (Residential customers are getting ripped off, honestly)
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Texas needs a capacity market, where generators are paid based on their must run status. They choose not to previously because of politics (prioritizing low cost over resiliency). The PUC is working to fix this ("performance credit mechanism"). https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/texas-power-market-public-utility-commission-electricity-credits/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/texas-power-market-p...

hardware2win 3y ago

Wat? There isnt already such a thing?

runnerup 3y ago
There is. Pricing is split mostly along residential vs. commercial vs. industrial although there’s a few more layers of discrimination based on usage patterns and “power factor” (reactive vs capacitive load).

runnerup 3y ago

Texas’ strategy is to encourage additional growth in the crypto mining sector because ostensibly they use a lot of power during off-peak days/hours which supports capital payback but also is flexible enough to turn off their load when the grid production is over stressed, so they theoretically won’t contribute to blackouts. Not sure if this thinking is fully correct, but on its face it’s at minimum not completely absurd. Also I think some of the Texas leadership is financially or emotionally invested in cryptocurrency.

one_level_deep2 3y ago

That would require admitting that the free market can't solve the problem, and likely makes it worse.

dcchambers 3y ago

Texas would never do anything that makes them appear 'anti-business' though. It goes against the entire political ethos of the folks in charge down there.

yalogin 3y ago

That doesn’t gel with lobbyists.

keep_reading 3y ago

They already do this. Commercial rates are cheaper than residential rates. (Residential customers are getting ripped off, honestly)

toomuchtodo 3y ago

Texas needs a capacity market, where generators are paid based on their must run status. They choose not to previously because of politics (prioritizing low cost over resiliency). The PUC is working to fix this ("performance credit mechanism"). https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/texas-power-market-public-utility-commission-electricity-credits/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/01/texas-power-market-p...