New York Looking for Crypto Miners

[Nikko]

New York just cracked open a door for electricity-sucking cryptocurrency miners to take advantage of some of its cheapest power supplies.

State regulators approved a new rate structure Thursday for one upstate utility that will allow miners interested in running operations there to negotiate contracts. Massena’s municipal utility will review the contracts individually while shielding the rest of its ratepayers from increased costs. Just four months earlier, New York cleared 36 other municipal power authorities to charge miners a higher rate than that paid by other customers.

New York is among the hydro-rich regions of the world that cyrptocurrency miners have targeted in a search for cheap power. From Quebec to Iceland to China, locals are raising concerns that miners will soak up low-cost hydropower supplies and raise power bills for everyone. That’s left governments including New York trying to strike a balance between attracting new business and protecting residents from rising energy costs.

“We must ensure that business customers pay a fair price for the electricity that they consume,” New York State Department of Public Service Chair John Rhodes said in a statement Thursday. “However, given the abundance of low-cost electricity in Upstate New York, there is an opportunity to serve the needs of existing customers and to encourage economic development in the region.”

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-12/new-york-to-crypto-miners-looking-for-cheap-power-let-s-talk?srnd=cryptocurriences