Voltus Lines Up Bitcoin Mine to Curb Power Use When Demand Spikes on Biggest U.S. Grid

(Bloomberg) -- Voltus Inc., an energy-management services provider, struck a deal with a cryptocurrency mine planned in Pennsylvania that will scale back its operations when demand for power spikes, freeing up electricity for other users on the biggest U.S. grid.

The facility that Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc. is developing is expected to be completed in June, and the power it uses will be available when needed on the grid that stretches from New Jersey to Illinois, according to a statement Wednesday from San Francisco-based Voltus.  The 100 megawatts of capacity the crypto mine will consume is enough to power 80,000 homes on the grid, run by PJM Interconnection LLC.

When demand on the grid is high and energy prices climb, Voltus's software helps Mawson and other clients determine if they can make more money by reducing their load and providing electricity to the grid instead of running the servers that process cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto mines consume massive amounts of power, and providing so-called demand-response and other services to power grids has become a common way to add a new revenue source, according to Voltus Chief Executive Officer Gregg Dixon.

His company works with about half the major U.S. miners, on all nine power grids in the U.S. and Canada, including PJM. Crypto mines can switch on and off quickly, any time of day, making them well-suited for meeting the needs of grid operators.

“Crypto loads are incredibly flexible,” Dixon said in an interview. 

While exact prices will vary depending on which grid is served and other factors, Dixon said a crypto miner can make from $100,000 to $600,000 a year for every megawatt they make available. For a 100-megawatt facility like the one Mawson is building, that works out to $10 million to $60 million annually for occasionally curtailing power consumption. Miners typically may be asked to do so anywhere from one hour to 500 hours a year.

Voltus  is planning to go public by merging with blank-check company Broadscale Acquisition Corp., in a deal that values the combined company at about $1.3 billion.

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