Power Electronics

Summary

With the rise in cryptocurrency mining more people have been attracted to mining their cryptocurrency in their homes. Individuals have been procuring at home mining machines and running them continuously and overclocking. This phenomenon has been used all over the world as crypto slowly rises to the top of the financial chain. Mining farms are developing in more rural areas where space and resources are readily available and are inexpensive. To date, 200,000 miner are known all over the world with a current mining capacity of 264.02 EH/s. Several countries have realized the negative impact of mining crypto and started to set regulations (time, energy consumption… etc). As a result, more have set their eyes towards the United States, specifically, Texas to set grounds on a more permanent and supportive environment due to the low electricity prices.

As a result of the 2021 winter storm, Texas grid has been under pressure to ensure continuous supply of electrical power to its consumers. The increase of crypto mining in Texas might hinder the grid’s reliability, and affect its consumers. As a precaution measurement ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) are stopping/ slowing issuing new permits to connect large new loads to the grid. Hence, readily available electricity for bitcoin miners has become increasingly difficult to secure. Miners are leaning towards building their own energy infrastructure, such as gas generators, and solar.

There are many types of mining machines and each one has its own specifications. The proposed work presents data using the Bitman S19J pro. We will investigate, power consumption adjustment, voltage & current analysis, compare PQ of mining facilities on-grid and off grid. We aspire to develop a methodology through power electronics techniques to enable the miners to participate in grid reliability services and voltage profile regulation.