Bitcoin Mining and Stabilizing the Power Grid - Is that Really a Use Case?
I work for a power utility company and deal with grid enhancements as a profession. I am also a Crypto/Bitcoin enthusiast.
Lately I've been seeing a lot of chatter about the ways Bitcoin can stabilize the grid, essentially taking excess energy (that would otherwise be wasted) and put that towards the Bitcoin protocol. However, one simple question, why could this energy not be stored in say a battery storage system, or hydro/gravity storage? I want to like the Bitcoin Mining to help the grid idea, but I don't buy it yet.
See below, thread claims that the Bitcoin mining can help stabilize the grid. While this is not necessarily wrong, this energy could just be stored as well... demand response systems are also vastly improving, so the idea of "we have excess energy we can't use" idea is going out the window and fast.
Again, this isn't really a concern for where I work anyway (Southeastern USA). The below says you need to maintain the 60Hz, which is true, but it isn't as drastic as the thread makes it sound.
Below is a graph from Berkeley on negative pricing of energy. Basically, the utility company pays you to take energy because they have excess. We see this in the Midwest mostly (not my area of work, as I work in Southeastern USA).
I don't understand yet how, or if, Bitcoin can solve these issues. I think it would be cool for Bitcoin to use all that excess energy, but in a more practical case it will most likely be stored in energy management systems or local smart grids.
Thoughts?
Submitted July 17, 2022 at 08:08PM by Austins-Reddit https://ift.tt/UrNKkt6
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