Cryptocurrencies
Quebec Asks Crypto Miners How Much They’ll Pay for Electricity
- New rules require miners to bid for power, spell out job plans
- Bids to start at 20% above power rates previously in place
An employee checks the fan on a mining machine at a cryptocurrency farming facility in Farnham, Quebec, Canada, on Jan. 24.
Photographer: Christinne Muschi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Cryptocurrency miners’ appetite for cheap electricity is being put to the test by Quebec.
Under rules proposed Thursday by provincial utility Hydro-Quebec, blockchain companies will be required to bid for power and spell out the jobs and investment per megawatt that they will generate. The starting bid is 1 Canadian cent ($0.0075) per kilowatt hour above the rate the industry had previously enjoyed -- roughly a 20 percent increase.