US energy sec floats faster grid access for AI and crypto miners
S. Matthew Schultz, the CEO of Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark, said the new rules would create expedited connections for Bitcoin mining and data centers.
The US Secretary of Energy has urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to write new rules that will make it faster for large electricity consumers, such as AI data centers and Bitcoin mining operations, to directly connect to the power grid.
In a letter released on Thursday, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked the FERC, the independent agency that regulates the interstate electricity grid, to grant expedited reviews and create standardized procedures for large electricity users to hook directly into the high-voltage transmission system, not just local power lines.
The high-voltage transmission system has a higher voltage capacity than local lines and is typically used by large industrial facilities that consume power at a higher rate.
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