On Wednesday morning MiningStore began load-shedding to reduce power to Bitcoin mining servers at the MiningStore mining facility located in Grundy County Iowa. MiningStore shut down most of their Bitcoin mining operations for over 8 hours and intends to reduce  power consumption to their  mining operations throughout the winter freeze. 

Iowa electric cooperative is a group of not-for-profit, member-owned electric co-ops which powers the lives of 650,000 Iowans throughout the State and is committed to delivering power that is safe, affordable, reliable, and environmentally responsible.

The majority of cooperatives in Iowa were established in the 1930s and 1940s when farmers united as cohorts to gain access to affordable electricity. Since inception, electric co-ops have been member-owned and locally governed.

“MiningStore as a member of the Grundy County Cooperative has volunteered to reduce its power consumption in order to support the initiative for responsible environmentally friendly use of energy”, said JP Baric, CEO of MiningStore. 

In February of 2021 blizzard like conditions in the state of Iowa caused blackouts in Electric Cooperatives across the state, leaving 1000’s of homes without power. In order to save the whole system from losing power, rolling blackouts were implemented to cut load and demand purposely.

The MiningStore 5.4 MegaWatt mining facility utilizes stranded energy to power bitcoin mining servers. Stranded energy is surplus energy that doesn’t have a destination on the power grid where it can be deployed or stored. Normally this energy goes to waste, instead is utilized to power the mining facility, in Grundy County. 

“We understand with extremely cold temperatures, the grid will demand more supply and we are committed to responsible use of energy in these types of situations. We are capable of cutting our load in under 30 minutes and we will scale down our load in its entirety if needed. ” stated JP Baric. 

“Bitcoin miners are often portrayed as bad actors without any concern for the massive amounts of power mining operations consume. In the case of the MiningStore mining facility here in Iowa, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Our mining operation is powered by stranded surplus wind energy and we ultimately convert wasted energy into economic freedom for our clients and partners.” Baric Also added.