​Canadian province bans new miners from connecting to the power grid

What’s new? On December 21, the authorities of the Canadian province of British Columbia issued a decree suspending the connection of new miners to the power grid. The ban will be in effect for 18 months, the main purpose of which is to provide support for climate protection measures and economic goals of the region.

Official press release

Reasons for the ban. According to the authorities, the temporary ban will keep B.C.’s electricity supply stable and give the government and BC Hydro power company time to develop measures for future cryptocurrency mining operations.

Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, stressed that mining consumes huge amounts of electricity while creating very few jobs. Suspending the connection requests will save power for people switching to electric vehicles and heat pumps, as well as for businesses and industries pursuing electrification projects that reduce carbon emissions and create jobs.

Currently, B.C. authorities have received requests for 1403 MW of electricity from 21 projects. The figure is equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 570 000 homes or 2,1 million electric vehicles.

The ban means that new projects will not be able to begin the process of connecting to BC Hydro’s grid, and projects in the early stages of the connection process will also be suspended. Mining farms already in operation will not be affected by the new rules.

BC Hydro currently serves seven cryptocurrency mining facilities, with another six in the final stages of connection. Their total capacity is 237 MW.

Earlier, a similar decision was taken by the authorities of the Canadian province of Manitoba. The moratorium was also imposed for 18 months in order to stop the growing number of requests for power supply for new facilities. And in early November, electricity supplier Hydro-Québec proposed imposing restrictions on the supply of the resource for blockchain companies in Quebec. The company noted a significant increase in expected demand in the coming year.