Chelan PUD developing sustainable plan to Bitcoin mining requests

Chelan PUD has received so many requests for large amounts of power, presumably for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency operations, the Chelan PUD released an outline Tuesday of how PUD staff plans to respond a reported seven requests for large amounts of power that if realized, would double the amount of PUD retail service.

A press release included a link to  the plan  which is based on an assessment of risk, including impacts to existing customers, and how to manage those risks.

“Large amounts of service translate into potentially large amounts of dollars of risk,” General Manager Steve Wright said. “We are carefully thinking through pricing strategies that are fair to existing and new customers.”

These strategies build on the high density load rate adopted last year for below 5 megawatt load.

Chelan PUD has requests from seven operators who are seeking from 5 to 100 megawatts each, staff reported. The total amount of power sought is more than double Chelan PUD’s average local load of 180 to 200 average megawatts.

PUD staff has fielded more than 75 inquiries about service since the price of bitcoin spiked late last year. Many of the service requests are assumed to be for cryptocurrency mining.

Requests for such large amounts of power raise issues for managing power generation, transmission and distribution.

The PUD’s approach for responding to requests of more than 5 megawatts will include an expanded application process to gather more information, advance payments for work to be performed and defining contract options and rates

The PUD will determine a timeline to process service requests for more than 5 megawatts after the expanded application process is in place and there is a decision on the scope of needed studies.