No one would be able to mine profitably while using a diesel generator, so this isn't going to happen Let's consider a large-scale mining operation that would

No one would be able to mine profitably while using a diesel generator, so this isn't going to happen Let's consider a large-scale mining operation that would use 20% (or up to 20% for elastic miners) of the current energy usage of a region. This isn't a hypothetical, this is something that's happened many times. One of 3 things (or a combination of them) will happen: A) The energy companies are now incentivized to produce more energy, which has an impact on the environment. Greenhouse emissions, resource extraction, waste, etc. B) The mining operation may only use surplus energy in some situations. Or at least they claim to, though I'm skeptical of these claims. Regardless, this disincentivizes the energy company from producing energy in an elastic manner; they can now keep their production methods running a bit longer, and they'll get paid for this energy. See (A) for the problems with this. They may also have been incentivized to store surplus energy or peer with other companies whose energy demands would be complementary. They no longer have this incentive C) More demand for energy results in higher prices for the other customers of the energy company. I'm really glad BC hydro didn't accept the bid.