New York state regulators have given permission to a municipal utility provider to charge higher power tariff on high density power consumers, including cryptocurrency miners, under separate service agreement.
The New York State Public Service Commission said it has approved new electricity rates for Massena Electric Department, which will become effective on July 17. It also made it clear that the increased supply costs resulting from the new service agreement will not affect existing customers.
This is seen as a mutually beneficial administrative move. It's a potentially significant development for heavily power consuming cryptocurrency miners, who will be able to do cryptocurrency trading by tapping the cheap hydro-electrical resources located in New York.
As a result, the potential exists for Massena to receive significant revenues if new cryptocurrency companies set up their exchanges in the community. The Massena system in St. Lawrence County covers 131 square miles with more than 9,000 customers. Massena provides businesses and residents with electricity at rates that are in the lowest 10 percent nationally.
Under the rules approved Thursday, high-density-load customers including those firms engaged in cryptocurrency operations will be eligible to consume electricity under an individual service agreement if their maximum demand exceeds 300 kW, and the customer provide benefits to the utility. Extending special service to high-density-load customers will lead to increased utilization of Massena's currently underutilized transmission and distribution facilities.
In recent months, several municipal power authorities had seen an unprecedented increase in requests for service from new commercial customers, mainly for data processing for cryptocurrencies, for disproportionately large amounts of power.
These companies are using thousands of times more electricity than an average residential customer would use, leading to higher costs for customers in small communities because of a limited supply of low-cost hydropower.
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