Crypto Miners face 50% Hike on Power Rates in Washington

Cryptocurrency miners will face a 50% hike in the power rates in Grant County. This hike is going to take place in the next three years as the Public Utility District (PUD) stated this Tuesday.

According to king5, Grant County PUD said this is being done to protect the customers from risk and preserve cost rates for other regular customers. This shows how the PUD is worried that if the price increase due to the usage of power for cryptocurrency mining then it will impact the regular customers.

Commissioner of the County Tom Fint said that the cryptocurrency industry is still unregulated and might cause high risks to people investing in it. And by executing power hikes for crypto miners is the best way to leave normal users unaffected. This discussion took place last weeks at the Commissioner’s meeting.

The plan for the hike in the power rates is defined as per time period of 3 years. During the period of 3 years in 2019 it will hike by 15%, In 2020 it will hike by 35% and finally, in 2021 it will hike by 50%. But the normal customers will not be affected by this price changes. And for the new cryptocurrency miners will need to pay the rate in which year they might be starting their business.

But seeing this price hikes the cryptocurrency miners and investors have spoken against it and are saying this hikes are baseless and are not charted on a proper analysis.

Last time we had seen upstate New York saying the electricity rates will be different for the heavy duty electricity users. Now, this comes down to Grant County who are following a similar path. But the price hikes on power are going to affect the profits of existing businesses and the investors who had invested in it. This will impact the market and force the miners to move toward a cheap power cost location to mine cryptocurrencies.