Each year, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issues a long-term reliability assessment. The assessment projects electricity supply and demand, evaluates transmission system adequacy, and highlights issues that could impact reliability over a 10-year period. The recently released 2023 assessment highlights the historically high annual growth rate of electricity peak demand as well as the increasing variability of resources on the grid.  

For the second year in a row, bitcoin mining facilities are described in the assessment among emerging issues, and specifically discussed with respect to ERCOT and their role as a large flex load. However, don’t let the word “issues” discourage you. NERC continues to describe mining facilities as a benefit to a grid where interruptible and distributed resources are projected to continue being deployed. According to the assessment, “[l]arge flexible loads and demand-side management programs hold promise for peak load management capabilities that can reduce the risk of firm load interruption.”  

According to the assessment, to account for more complex conditions, grid reliability would benefit from additional transmission lines and more detailed modeling of demand. ERCOT, in particular, is projected to have peak demand growth through 2033 that is less than its energy supply growth but has adopted more extreme weather assumptions to account for increased frequency of extreme weather events. 

NERC’s report validates the value of mining as a grid balancing resource to energy stakeholders.