New Increased Electricity Costs for Crypto Miners Proposed by Rural Washington County Utility

According to a report published by Central Washington, radio station(KPQ), Washington’s Chelan County Public Utility District(PUD) has proposed a new electricity pricing structure for cryptocurrency miners in order to pass down the cost of increased electricity demand.

The customer’s Utilities Rate Adviser, Lindsey Mohns, in an article, explains the difference berween the current and proposed electricity pricing systems, noting that the rate structure is “built the same way was as the existing rate structure that cryptocurrency miners are paying right now.”

According to public information office of Chelan PUD, Kimberlee Craig, this new rate structure is designed in such a way that it captures the cost and protects the investment for the customer that are already here and invested hugely in our system.

The “investments” in KPQ refers to all PUD’s fixed expenses including covering the “accelerated cost of infrastructure investment in the system.”

According to KPQ, many members of the cryptocurrency community expressed their displeasure at the proposed increasing costs when the Chelan PUD introduced the new proposed pricing system in Nov. 7.

Unauthorized cryptocurrency miners were caught by Chelan PUD earlier this year in April & the PUD ordered the staff to enforce a moratorium on cryptocurrency mining. The county’s ban on crypto mining is not the only such development in Washington, as the city of Ephrata has also recently imposed a one year ban on new cryptocurrency operations.

Internationally , similar moratoriums has been observed by the Chelan PUD. The Quebec government has lifted its temporary ban on electricity sale to miners during the last week of May this year.