20 sats \ 3 replies \ @faithandcredit 15 May 2022 \ on: Riot Blockchain mining temporarily powers down after ERCOT asks Texans to conserve power bitcoin
3000mw seems like alot? i thought the total bitcoin network only was about 7000mw power consumption. Unless the 3000mw includes cooling and what not, and i wonder if in the end thats as big an expense in terms of electricity as the miners themselves or maybe its a typo and they are turning off 300mw. still a lot for a single facility. I dont understand :)
i thought the total bitcoin network only was about 7000mw power consumption.
Using CBECI numbers, 7GW is about the theoretical lower bound (i.e., everyone using the most efficient hardware available). The upper bound (i.e., everyone using S9s) is about 34GW. Current best estimate by them is 16.6GW at this moment. It's really hard to know as shipments of new, modern ASICs are increasing (see total hashrate), and nobody knows (yet) how much of the old equipment is going to be finding new homes, which can take months between when powered down at one site, refurbished and tested, then bought and sold on secondary markets, and eventually powered back up at its new home (possibly in another country / continent).
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Thanks this comment helped me put things in perspective because i only used -most effecient miner- in my calculation.
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That was a really badly worded Tweet.
The ERCOT grid lost 3,000MW. Riot's (brand new) facility has the capacity of 700MW. They are not yet at capacity, I believe, but their website apparently shows their capacity utilization plan:
They did not say if the are curtailing for only their own self-mining (probably ~200 MW now), or if they are curtailing for hosted (customer-owned) equipment as well (probably close to another ~200 MW). Presumably the customers would have the option as this is a voluntary act in response to ERCOT's request, and not contractually required nor an order by the gov't.
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