Local electricity price effects of Bitcoin mining in renewable-rich energy systems

Abstract

Load-shifting is increasingly important in renewable-rich energy systems. Bitcoin mining is often cited as a large, theoretically flexible load. Despite electricity consumption rivaling medium-sized industrial economies, the energy market behavior and impacts of Bitcoin miners remain largely unexplored. We exploit the large-scale relocation of Bitcoin mining to Texas, which became the world's largest mining hub following China's 2021 ban, to estimate its effects on local wholesale electricity prices. Combining a hand-collected dataset on mining facility locations with high-frequency wholesale price data, we identify price impacts using a DiD design. We find that miners select into renewable-rich, high-GDP per capita counties with initially lower electricity prices on average. Entry has no robust effect on daytime prices but raises nighttime prices by 19.9%. Price separation widens most in already-stressed hours. Miners may curtail under extreme scarcity, but do not shift load across ordinary price cycles to complement renewable generation.