N.B. Power hits pause on large new electricity customers during crypto review
2 mines, 1 open and 1 cancelled, would use more electricity than proposed small nuclear reactor can generate
The Higgs government quietly endorsed the moratorium in a cabinet order in March 2022 and ordered a review of how the sector might affect the reliable supply of electricity.
The cabinet order, filed with the Energy and Utilities Board, said N.B. Power had "policy, technical and operation concerns about [its] capacity to service the anticipated additional load demand" from crypto mines.
It said the utility had received "several new large-scale, short-notice service requests" to supply electricity to crypto mining companies that could put "significant pressure" on the existing supply of electricity.
The order, signed by Premier Blaine Higgs, said non-crypto companies shouldn't be subject to the pause for any longer than required for the review.
CBC
asked Premier Higgs's office for a copy of the review done on how the
bitcoin mining sector might affect the reliable supply of electricity,
but there was no response. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
The review was due Dec. 31, but N.B. Power refused to provide a copy to CBC News.
"We cannot share the report as it was provided to Executive Council in confidence," said spokesperson Dominique Couture.
The freeze was ordered just months after Taal Distributed Information Technologies Inc. announced plans to establish a 50-megawatt bitcoin mining and transaction processing operation in Grand Falls.
A town official said this week that deal never went ahead.
24 hours a day
The Taal facility would have joined an existing, 70-megawatt bitcoin mine in Grand Falls operated by Hive Blockchain Technologies.
Hive's bitcoin mine is made up of four large warehouses containing thousands of computers that run 24 hours a day trying to earn units of the cryptocurrency.
The combined annual electricity consumption of the two mines would exceed what could be produced by the small modular nuclear reactor being designed by ARC Clean Energy Canada of Saint John.
Put another way, the two mines would gobble up more than three months' worth of electricity from N.B. Power's coal-fired Belledune generating station.
No one from Taal responded to interview requests from CBC News.
Aydin
Kilic, the president and chief operating officer of Hive Blockchain
Technologies, holds a miner — a small computer specifically designed for
mining bitcoin. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
"We are proud to operate in New Brunswick. Hive's operations near Grand Falls predate the moratorium, so we are unaffected," Hive CEO Aydin Kilic said in a statement Friday.
CBC also asked Higgs's office for a copy of the review and an interview but there was no response.
The pause comes at a time when N.B. Power is confronting a series of interconnected challenges about its long-term ability to generate electricity.
N.B. Power must stop burning coal at Belledune by 2030 under federal climate rules.
It's having problems running the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station, and it must decide soon whether to spend $3 billion to refurbish the Mactaquac hydro dam.
The utility has been exploring other energy sources for Belledune but so far has not made a decision, and converting the plant could be costly.
Utility officials told a committee of MLAs recently that the province faced an all-time record peak demand on Feb. 4 that left it on the verge of not being able to supply existing customers.
"It's a trend. We're going to set peak-demand records on a regular basis as we go forward," chief nuclear engineer Andy Hayward said.
"We're going to attract more population to the province. We're going to attract industry to the province. The demand's going to go up."
ARC Clean Energy said in February its first 100-megawatt SMR will be ready to install at Point Lepreau by 2030, but that won't generate enough power to fill the gap left by Belledune.
Another SMR developer, Moltex Energy Canada, is working on a 300-megawatt reactor but said it won't be ready in time for 2030.
In 2021, Kilic told CBC News that the 70-megawatt power consumption of the company's New Brunswick bitcoin mine was the equivalent of powering 7,000 homes.
The
freeze on servicing new, large-scale industrial customers comes at a
time when N.B. Power is confronting challenges to its long-term ability
to generate electricity. It must stop burning coal at Belledune by 2030. (N.B. Power)
Michelle Robichaud, president of the Atlantica Centre for Energy, an industry-funded research centre, didn't want to comment on cryptocurrency mining but said the Hive and Taal energy consumption did not seem like a big burden on the grid.
"It doesn't necessarily go up or down. It's a nice consistent level," she said. "I would think that that is not a huge addition to the system."
J.D. Irving Ltd., the utility's largest customer, "voluntarily and proactively" scaled back its Saint John paper mill operations that weekend, and last July, to avoid higher electricity costs due to peak demand, said its vice-president of communications Anne McInerny.
Under the Electricity Act, N.B. Power must provide its customers with "equitable access" to electricity but must also ensure the "reliability" of the system.
Bitcoin is a digital form of money that has risen in value and popularity around the globe in the last decade.
It operates without a central banking system, with transactions tallied on a digital ledger called a blockchain.
A
photo from 2021 as Hive Blockchain Technologies was building warehouses
in Saint-André. The more computers a company operates, the more
currency it will earn, but adding computers requires larger amounts of
electricity. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
Bitcoin mines act as a decentralized banking network, constantly recording worldwide transactions and earning bitcoin as a reward.
The more computers a company operates to tally transactions, the more currency it will earn, but adding computers requires larger amounts of electricity.
N.B. Power has been forced to run its carbon-emitting plants more than usual in recent years due to Lepreau's problems.
Some U.S. electrical utilities supplying crypto mines have been forced to pass on higher costs of generation to other customers and, in some cases, have had to generate more electricity from greenhouse-gas emitting sources.
Kilic said in 2021 that one reason the company set up shop in Grand Falls is that the colder climate allows it to ventilate the warehouses and keep the computers cool without air conditioning — which would consume even more electricity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
Shane Fowler · CBC News · Posted: Dec 31, 2021 7:00 AM AST
===
As for BITCOIN . . . can anyone show this whole business is not a scam? Let the operators generate their own power if it is so great. After all, if someone wants to build a mine (a real one, that is) in a remote location, it is not uncommon for the mine project to set up their own electricity generating system.
Utilities board denies request by J.D. Irving Ltd. to broaden upcoming N.B. Power hearing
Company says millions of dollars in power costs assigned to industry need shifting to residential customers
NB Power's cost allocations and rate designs have historically been too heavily influenced by political considerations and skewed towards the economic interests of the utility.
And let's not get started on the rationale for NB Power customers subsidizing bitcoin mining.
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
Shane Fowler · CBC News · Posted: Dec 31, 2021 7:00 AM AST
Saturday, 1 January 2022
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-andre-bitcoin-mining-hive-1.6293906
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
For the last several months, the Vancouver-based company Hive Blockchain Technologies has been building four highly specialized warehouses that will host thousands of computers.
Those individual computers are known as "miners," and they run 24 hours a day to make their owners bitcoin.
Aydin
Kilic, the president and chief operating officer of Hive Blockchain
Technologies, showcases 'a miner,' a small computer specifically
designed for mining bitcoin. (Shane Fowler/CBC News) Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency, a digital form of money that has risen in value and popularity around the globe in the last decade. Instead of a physical currency, bitcoin is strictly digital.
Bitcoin also operates without a central banking system. Instead, all bitcoin transactions are tallied on a digital ledger called the blockchain.
Bitcoin mining operations like the one in Saint-Andre act as the bank for bitcoin, constantly tallying the worldwide transactions on the blockchain. Bitcoin mining operations are made up of hundreds, often thousands, of computers creating a decentralized banking network.
The reward for tallying those transactions is bitcoin. And the more computers a person or company dedicates to tallying those transactions, the more bitcoin is paid out.
That's why Hive has built bitcoin mines in Quebec, Sweden and Iceland, and is finishing construction in Saint-André.
Two of the buildings in Saint-André are complete, while technicians are now installing 100 metres of computers, stacked seven high, in a third.
Construction workers are heating the frozen ground and pouring the foundations of a fourth building, which Kilic expects will be completed in the first half of next year.
Once completed, Kilic said, he expects the entire facility to mine about five bitcoin a day.
Over the past year, a single bitcoin has been valued between $30,000 and $85,000 Cdn.
Some people might assume such an operation would be more at home in Silicon Valley. Why build one in a northern New Brunswick community of fewer than 1,000 people?
According to Kilic, the decision came down to four factors: a favourable tax rate, stable government, access to affordable electricity, and most important, the temperature.
"If you want to talk about optimal environments, well, Saint-André is optimal, and we love it here," Kilic said. "We've got cool, dry temperatures."
Hive
has two warehouses full of bitcoin miners in operation, with a third
being completed. A forth warehouse, on the right, is expected to be
completed in the spring of 2022. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
Each exterior wall of the warehouses features massive slats that allow cool outside air to drift inside.
That air wafts through a wall of filter paper that runs the entire length of the building. The cold filtered air then flows directly into the mining computers, cooling them.
Once that air is heated by the computer processors, it's pushed toward the centre of the building by the fans built into each miner. It then exits through the roof of the building. It's all done without ductwork or fans, other than the ones built into each computer.
"We've got a beautiful passive design," Kilic said. "A very novel design where we use the cool, dry climate without having to have air conditioning."
With thousands of computers running non-stop, the heat that is generated is tropical, even to Saint-André Mayor Marcel Levesque, who has toured the plant.
"It's crazy, it's crazy," said Levesque. "You never imagine seeing so many computers in a building. Never."
Vancouver-based
Hive Blockchain Technologies employs 70 people from the Saint-André
area as it constructs its bitcoin mining plant. Once completed, the
operation will provide about 20 full-time positions. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
Air conditioning would also contribute to the astronomical amount of power being used. According to Kilic,the mining operation will eventually consume about the same amount of electricity used to power more than 7,000 homes.
"In total, the four-building campus will be 70 megawatts when it's complete," said Kilic.
Being in an area near where electricity is generated — at the Grand Falls, Tobique Narrows and Sisson dams — also factored into the decision to build in Saint-André. It's also near where N.B. Power transmission lines intersect, ensuring plenty of electricity for the power-hungry plant.
A few new jobs
Currently, Hive employs about 70 people. Most are from the Saint-André and Grand Falls area, and are involved in construction. When it's completed, Kilic expects the operation will employ 20 people, who will work mostly to maintain the miners and for security.
They includes Luc Ouellette from Grand Falls, who said that even though he's worked at Hive for nearly two years, his friends and family still have a hard time understanding what he does for a living.
Luc
Ouellette, Hive’s regional director in New Brunswick, is from nearby
Grand Falls. He's been working on the bitcoin mining project for nearly
two years. (Shane Fowler/CBC News)
"They don't even know, most of them," said Luc Ouellette, Hive's regional director in New Brunswick. "I tell them what we're doing here, and they really want to visit us and see what's going on.
"It's a big opportunity for us to work locally with next-generation stuff. Being part of that is great."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/bitcoin-gerald-cotten-quadriga-cx-death
N.B. Power hits pause on large new electricity customers during crypto review
2 mines, 1 open and 1 cancelled, would use more electricity than proposed small nuclear reactor can generate
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: May 01, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Volume
417,089
52 week range
1.85 - 10.15
Methinks we have used the same expression but for different reasons N'esy Pas?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/tesla-bitcoin-payment-1.6024633
N'est-ce-pas?
However I say it and write it my way in New Brunswick and Louisiana. Trust that mes très chers amis on both sides of the Medicine line and I just chuckle at the snobby people who look down on our chosen lingo.
🇧 🇴 🇳 🇳 🇪 🇦 🇳 🇳 🇪 🇪 🇦 🇹 🇴 🇺 🇸❗
2 mines, 1 open and 1 cancelled, would use more electricity than proposed small nuclear reactor can generate
Jacques Poitras · CBC News · Posted: May 01, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Utilities board denies request by J.D. Irving Ltd. to broaden upcoming N.B. Power hearing
Company says millions of dollars in power costs assigned to industry need shifting to residential customers
Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Apr 21, 2023 6:00 AM ADT
Roy Kirk
. . . And millions of dollars currently paid by small residential customers should properly be shifted to larger residential customers who drive the costs through their large peak coincident loads. But it's not going to happen!
NB Power's cost allocations and rate designs have historically been too heavily influenced by political considerations and skewed towards the economic interests of the utility.
And let's not get started on the rationale for NB Power customers subsidizing bitcoin mining.
Methinks folks may recall I had some fun with that on New Years Eve not so long ago N'esy Pas?
The buzz in Saint-André: An inside look at bitcoin mining in rural New Brunswick
This cryptocurrency mining operation in province's northwest requires thousands of computers
Shane Fowler · CBC News · Posted: Dec 31, 2021 7:00 AM AST
The only difference is your invested <whatever> in this case does not physically even exist, pretending they do costs thousands in computer resources and wasted electricity needlessly, and the only people who would think to accept them are just a few other crypto-chasers. Might as well invest in Pokemon cards or collector Lego sets, at least they physical exist and you don't have to waste megawatts of power "mining" them.
These guys remind me of those goldminers who went to the Yukon back in the 1800's to strike it rich. Most of them invested everything they had and died broke and penniless.
Bitcoin mining can often be set up to make sustainable energy projects more feasible such as a hydroelectric project. If there doesn't exist the demand for the power generated, **at all times of day**, the project may be considered unprofitable or unfeasible.The Bitcoin network is the buyer of last demand and can take up any excess power when consumers are not demanding it. This counterintuitively lowers the cost of electricity for consumers as the grid is balanced.
Remember, simply using power is not bad for the environment. It all depends how the power is created.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/bitcoin-gerald-cotten-quadriga-cx-death
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