Power companies should mine bitcoins

[DannyHamilton]

Battery storage suck. We don't even have decent electric cars. Why should power companies buy expensive wasteful batteries?

batteries lol....you know what a transformer is right?

Yes, it converts (transforms) alternating current to either higher voltage with lower current or lower voltage with higher current.  It does this through electrical induction between two coils with differing numbers of windings.  What does that have to do with the discussion at hand?

I think he's right. They use transformer stations to change amperage for long distance transmission on the grid. Still it's not very efficient compared to batteries and bitcoin would be more efficient still.

No. He's wrong.

He's claiming that they use transformers to "store" electricity in magnetic fields:

- snip -
A transformer transforms voltage yes but is also a storage of potential energy via a magnetic field.

He's also claiming that you can't power a transformer with wind or solar energy:

So, yes you need a battery for wind energy or solar energy because it does not produce a steady state energy. Thus you can't power a transformer because you do not have a constant potential difference.

He doesn't seem to understand how the electric power supply companies operate at all.  He doesn't realize that they waste resources during off-peak times due to being sized for peak loads, that wind, solar, or any other form of alternating current can power a transformer, or that transformers do not "store" electricity.

[caribbeanbitcoiner]

Battery storage suck. We don't even have decent electric cars. Why should power companies buy expensive wasteful batteries?

batteries lol....you know what a transformer is right?

Yes, it converts (transforms) alternating current to either higher voltage with lower current or lower voltage with higher current.  It does this through electrical induction between two coils with differing numbers of windings.  What does that have to do with the discussion at hand?

I think he's right. They use transformer stations to change amperage for long distance transmission on the grid. Still it's not very efficient compared to batteries and bitcoin would be more efficient still.

No. He's wrong.

He's claiming that they use transformers to "store" electricity in magnetic fields:

- snip -
A transformer transforms voltage yes but is also a storage of potential energy via a magnetic field.

He's also claiming that you can't power a transformer with wind or solar energy:

So, yes you need a battery for wind energy or solar energy because it does not produce a steady state energy. Thus you can't power a transformer because you do not have a constant potential difference.

He doesn't seem to understand how the electric power supply companies operate at all.  He doesn't realize that they waste energy generating electricity that goes unused during off-peak times, that wind, solar, or any other form of alternating current can power a transformer, or that transformers do not "store" electricity.

It doesn't necessarily work that way. The harder a generator works (bigger electrical load) the more it uses fossil fuel. The difference between running at full load and half load wouldn't be the amount of electricity wasted it would be the consumption rate of fossil fuels. 

[dsly]

A lot of grid is wasted during off peak times. Energy is stored or sold in inefficient manners. Instead, they should use any excess energy in mining bitcoins to sell. Rather than raising electric rates, they can increase their customer base. Their price discovery will be the electricity/btc pair. They can choose which will be most profitable. Storage can then be bought by customers for their needs based on rates. This just seems more efficient than being forced to sell to only one market.

Well in a lot of countries like Sweden Smart grids are coming up. So during off peak hours, most of the energy is now stored and not wasted .
So it would actually be hard to use that to mine bitcoins .However in some developing countries, the waste still happens , and those might be perfect places to do this.
Not sure how welcoming some of the companies would be to the idea, and would be willing to spend money into the mining gear for this.

[bornil267645]

The cost of electricity is rising anyway, so what the hell!!!

Let's start mining!!!

[cbeast]

A lot of grid is wasted during off peak times. Energy is stored or sold in inefficient manners. Instead, they should use any excess energy in mining bitcoins to sell. Rather than raising electric rates, they can increase their customer base. Their price discovery will be the electricity/btc pair. They can choose which will be most profitable. Storage can then be bought by customers for their needs based on rates. This just seems more efficient than being forced to sell to only one market.

Well in a lot of countries like Sweden Smart grids are coming up. So during off peak hours, most of the energy is now stored and not wasted .
So it would actually be hard to use that to mine bitcoins .However in some developing countries, the waste still happens , and those might be perfect places to do this.
Not sure how welcoming some of the companies would be to the idea, and would be willing to spend money into the mining gear for this.

That's great. How do they store it? Customers can also bear the cost of storage. If the power companies focused on generating revenue, maybe they can offer cheaper power. I realize Sweden treats power as a commons and that's fine. This idea doesn't oppose socialism, it shifts the energy storage from centralized to decentralized. Individuals and municipalities can compete for bitcoin or energy, depending what they need.

[philiveyjr]

The cost of electricity is rising anyway, so what the hell!!!

Let's start mining!!!

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

[Bananana]

The cost of electricity is rising anyway, so what the hell!!!

Let's start mining!!!

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

Do you know you don't need a decent internet connection to start mining? Even 56k is good enough.

[tonygal]

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

You get free electricity for private consumption in your home? So they just waive your bill? Sounds
like a jackpot to me

[tatu]

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

You get free electricity for private consumption in your home? So they just waive your bill? Sounds
like a jackpot to me

Some places the electricity and other such things are included with the rent. My friend pays a fixed fee and he gets everything water gas electricity and even internet though that would likely change if he decided to run a mining farm lol.

[philiveyjr]

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

You get free electricity for private consumption in your home? So they just waive your bill? Sounds
like a jackpot to me

Yeah Free elec for home.!! It is awesome but I am not able to use it profitably... I want to start a rig.!! but not much investments..+ no good/cheap internet.!

[arvindr]

I work in a power company..! I get free elec. but I dont have a decent internet connection to support miners!

You get free electricity for private consumption in your home? So they just waive your bill? Sounds
like a jackpot to me

A lot of government employees in India get free electricity and other resources.
I am sure a lot of people take advantage of this. Maybe they should use it for mining

[rubenelportero]

Yeah, if the employeers gets free electricity they can use this electricity to mine bitcoin. But not the companies.

[GGGGG]

There is no FREE electricity, forget it! Mining Bitcoins isn't cheap at the current difficulty.

[cbeast]

There is no FREE electricity, forget it! Mining Bitcoins isn't cheap at the current difficulty.

I'm not saying power plants give away their power. I'm saying it's more efficient for them to mine bitcoins and pass the savings to customers that can store their own peak power needs.

[mlferro]

would be a good, but certainly energy companies would benefit from it

[numismatist]

A lot of grid is wasted during off peak times. Energy is stored or sold in inefficient manners. Instead, they should use any excess energy in mining bitcoins to sell. Rather than raising electric rates, they can increase their customer base. Their price discovery will be the electricity/btc pair. They can choose which will be most profitable. Storage can then be bought by customers for their needs based on rates. This just seems more efficient than being forced to sell to only one market.

You cannot really store energy, those methods popped up in the renewables sphere mostly, more often only there.

The issue regarding POW mining is that it can absorb any amount of power supply. On the long, we need something else besides that.

[cbeast]

A lot of grid is wasted during off peak times. Energy is stored or sold in inefficient manners. Instead, they should use any excess energy in mining bitcoins to sell. Rather than raising electric rates, they can increase their customer base. Their price discovery will be the electricity/btc pair. They can choose which will be most profitable. Storage can then be bought by customers for their needs based on rates. This just seems more efficient than being forced to sell to only one market.

You cannot really store energy, those methods popped up in the renewables sphere mostly, more often only there.

The issue regarding POW mining is that it can absorb any amount of power supply. On the long, we need something else besides that.

I'm not sure what you mean by "absorb any amount of power supply." Mining is voluntary. PoW proves the energy. It's a matter of physics what you do with the work. You can always turn it back into energy.

The problem with selling energy units is counterparty risk, especially with energy market manipulation. I'm not saying we burn all our produced energy, just the energy that the grid wastes over long distances. Energy is easy to store locally, or at least it should be if we want to get away from burning carbon.

[QuestionAuthority]

There is no FREE electricity, forget it! Mining Bitcoins isn't cheap at the current difficulty.

I'm not saying power plants give away their power. I'm saying it's more efficient for them to mine bitcoins and pass the savings to customers that can store their own peak power needs.

I can see this happening even in smaller mining farms. I have a friend that built a cabin on a couple acres of land on a stream in the mountains of NorCal. He loved it but had no electric power because it was too remote. He researched solar and wind power but concluded that they wouldn't work well enough where the cabin was located. He discussed his problem with a friend and they came up with this crazy idea of putting paddle wheels in the stream to turn a generator. The stream gets low at certain times of the year so they dug out and poured a concrete kind of bath tub looking thing in the part of the stream he owns and hung what looks like a can that squirts water out four tubes on to a fan blade. This is hung on steel pipes in the stream with a shaft that connects with pullys to an Onan generator on a concrete pad on the bank. They wired the cabin and it works all year long providing power. The best part is, he didn't even need to install a battery storage system because it's always generating electric. He invited a few of us on a hunting trip (wife code for a weekend long drunken card game) and gave us a tour of how it works. I never realized getting free power was that easy before. He even mounted a satellite dish on a tree for TV and Internet. I asked him if he visits his wife occasionally because if I had his setup I'd probably never go home.

[sandykho47]

I wonder if power companies can take the risk & waiting for ROI with crazy difficult right now 

How about hardware mining companies / cloud mining companies mine bitcoin before their product sold to their customer
So, they got profit from their customer & from mining 

[Unbelive]

Not all the extra-energy is stored in batteries. Do you know about Pumped storage hydroelectricity? (and it's only an example). Bitcoin is not profitable for the electricity companies.

Bye!

I think storing power is quite expensive. I think OP is right. They should definitely think of it.