•  TEPCO Power Grid has decided to capitalize on its excess power to mine Bitcoin across the country. 
• According to the report, monetizing its excess power with Bitcoin mining through its subsidiary Agile Energy X has been an option to make extra revenue.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) Power Grid, the largest electric power company in Japan, has decided to capitalize on its excess power to mine Bitcoin across the country. Per the report, this will be done in partnership with a local semiconductor company TRIPLE-1. TEPCO is the utility behind the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

It can be recalled that some of its cooling systems were knocked out in the infamous earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands of people in Japan in 2011. This caused three reactors to melt down. In 2012, the power company issued a report, admitting that it failed to take stronger precautions to avoid the disaster.

There were concerns that if new countermeasures against severe accidents were installed, the concern would spread in host communities that the current plants had safety problems.

To now, TEPCO has been struggling to fully recover from the accident. Compensations for victims to this day have had a huge impact on its profitability. According to the report, monetizing its excess power with Bitcoin mining through its subsidiary Agile Energy X has been an option to make extra revenue. A report has disclosed that Agile Energy X signed a memorandum of understanding with TRIPLE-1 on November 11 to this effect.

Global power companies jumping on the Bitcoin mining bandwagon

The collaboration demands that Agile distribute data centers across Japan as it repurposes excess electricity from renewable energy with TRIPLE-1’s semiconductors. 

According to reports, a pilot project has already begun.

We have started experiments to confirm the system behavior and the impact on the power grid when equipment is operated with a large amount of power on the scale of 1,500 kW, and have confirmed that the equipment can operate normally. TRIPLE-1’s state-of-the-art process technology will be used for the computational computers used in this project, and we will exclusively introduce semiconductors with extremely high power performance.

The report further states that selecting energy-saving products with low environmental impact is very important in driving toward the realization of a carbon-neutral society.

Just like TEPCO, several global energy companies have made entries into the Bitcoin mining ecosystem in a bid to monetize surplus power. ConocoPhillips was recently reported to be selling stranded gas to Bitcoin miners in Bakken. In doing so, carbon emission is reduced and Bitcoin miners get access to cheap energy. Similarly, Exxon had an agreement with Crusoe Energy Systems to redirect excess gas to mobile Bitcoin mines. 

This development could restore confidence in BTC to drive the price back into the $20,000s. On the other side, this may have little or no effect on the price as other price-determining factors like monetary policies still have a dominant impact on the market.