According to the Canadian press, the Manitoba government has barred new connections of crypto mining centers to the province’s hydroelectric grid, and officials explain the move with prospects of increased energy demand that the region may not be able to meet. can.
The suspension, imposed for a period of 18 months, will not affect the 37 mining operations currently in operation, according to a published article in the Toronto Star. The aim is to provide new capacity facilities to a large part of the province’s electricity supply and to stem the growing number of requests for electricity.
Speaking for the decision, Finance Minister Cameron Friesen, the responsible government official, commented on Monday that he could not directly say that someone who wants to get higher can take the cost of transmission lines. and the final cost is $13 billion.
With the second-lowest electricity rates in Canada, only Quebec offers cheap electricity, Manitoba is one for users who require large amounts of electricity, such as the energy-intensive form of cryptocurrency.
According to Friesen, 17 new operators have requested the authorities for a total of 370 megawatts of power. This is more than half of the electricity produced by the Kiosk Hydroelectric Generating Station which was commissioned in 2022.
The region’s finance minister highlights the Progressive Conservative government’s concern that blockchain businesses may not create new jobs that could use hundreds of megawatts with only a small number of employees.
Frisson stressed that “Manitoba Hydro cannot make discretionary decisions about who to hook up to.” A review is expected to analyze the economic impact of cryptocurrencies and the need for new regulations to grant approval for new connections. Earlier this month, the Hydro-Québec public utility asked the electricity distribution regulator in its province to step in and eliminate energy allocations for the blockchain sector, where the US state of New York is also set to enforce a partial moratorium on proof-of-work mining.
