Washington State Utility Raises Power Rates on Bitcoin Miners

A Washington State utility is raising rates on bitcoin miners, months after a dispute with the local industry began over its power usage.
The Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD) announced earlier this week that, effective January 2017, electrical rates will rise for so-called “high-density load customers”, or those that use 250 kilowatt hours per square foot per year. The definition, as stated by the PUD, is intended specifically to cover server farms and bitcoin mines, or data centers that specifically service network transactions.
The increase won’t be immediately felt by the region’s bitcoin miners, however, as the PUD said that a five-year transition period is being initiated for existing customers who can show they’ve made “substantial investment” and meet additional criteria.

This post was published at Coin Desk on July 20, 2016.