THE GRID JUST WROTE A RULE THAT DESCRIBES BITCOIN MINING AND NEVER SAYS THE WORD — 50 MEGAWATTS MAKES YOU A LARGE LOAD, 25 OF THEM IN COMPUTERS MAKES YOU A NEW SPECIES — LIVE DECEMBER 4
MISO runs the power grid for fifteen states in the middle of the country. On August 28 it asked federal regulators for a new rule. Draw more than 50 megawatts and you are a “large load.” Draw that much with at least 25 megawatts of it going into computers and you get your own name: a “computational load.” It wants this live December 4.
Read what MISO says these customers do. They “may exhibit rapid and coordinated changes in demand, significant power-electronic behavior, and distinct responses to transmission system disturbances.” That is a mining farm described by a stranger. Thousands of machines that all stop at the same second when the price of power moves. The trade press covered this filing and did not use the word bitcoin once.
Four things you now have to prove. The grid can see your load in real time. You carry equipment that reports what you did during a disturbance. You cannot speed up or slow down faster than allowed. You stay on when the voltage sags. Deals already signed are grandfathered, though MISO keeps the right to step in.
None of that is unreasonable. All of it costs money, and the cost does not shrink for small operators. MISO's demand grew half a percent a year from 2009 to 2024. It now expects one to two percent a year through 2044. Computers did that.
Mining spent ten years being called a waste of electricity. It is now a load class with an engineering standard written for it. That is what arriving looks like. It is also a fence, and both are true at once. The machines that clear the bar get a quieter field. Technologist.
Read what MISO says these customers do. They “may exhibit rapid and coordinated changes in demand, significant power-electronic behavior, and distinct responses to transmission system disturbances.” That is a mining farm described by a stranger. Thousands of machines that all stop at the same second when the price of power moves. The trade press covered this filing and did not use the word bitcoin once.
Four things you now have to prove. The grid can see your load in real time. You carry equipment that reports what you did during a disturbance. You cannot speed up or slow down faster than allowed. You stay on when the voltage sags. Deals already signed are grandfathered, though MISO keeps the right to step in.
None of that is unreasonable. All of it costs money, and the cost does not shrink for small operators. MISO's demand grew half a percent a year from 2009 to 2024. It now expects one to two percent a year through 2044. Computers did that.
Mining spent ten years being called a waste of electricity. It is now a load class with an engineering standard written for it. That is what arriving looks like. It is also a fence, and both are true at once. The machines that clear the bar get a quieter field. Technologist.
UTILITY DIVE · Tue Sep 1 · MISO filing Fri Aug 28, FERC accession 20260828-5278 · + FERC DOCKET RM26-4-000 (PRIMARY) · + TFTC Sep 2 · FERC's own ANOPR sets the large-load line at 20 MW