Hashrate keeps migrating toward curtailment-friendly grids
Operators are trading raw power price for the right to be switched off — and getting paid for it.
A growing share of new mining capacity is being sited on grids that pay large loads to power down during scarcity events, according to interconnection filings and operator disclosures.
The economics are straightforward. Demand-response revenue is uncorrelated with the hashprice cycle, which makes it unusually valuable to operators whose primary revenue line swings with network difficulty.
That has changed how sites are engineered. Newer builds favour rapid ramp control and immersion cooling over the absolute lowest energy price, because responsiveness is what the grid actually pays for.
Grid operators are cautious about over-reliance on a single flexible load class. Several are revising baseline rules to prevent facilities from inflating their curtailment baseline.
Difficulty has continued to grind higher regardless, compressing margins for older fleets that cannot participate in these programmes.
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