MDU - ATLAS -- February 29, 2024

Locator: 46629ATLAS.

Link here. Archived here.

This story was behind a paywall over at The Bismarck Tribune. From the linked article:

A major North Dakota utility -- MDU -- says it is being overcharged by a regional grid operator -- SSP -- for the electricity demands related to a power-hungry cryptocurrency mine  -- Atlas -- in the northwest part of the state -- Williston. These costs are being passed on to ratepayers.

Bismarck-based Montana-Dakota Utilities filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January. The issue is not the demand from the crypto mine itself, but rather the costs for the strain that MDU says the mine's operations are putting on a power line which travels from Grassy Butte to Watford City and serves some of the utility's customers in northwest North Dakota.

This strain creates congestion which occurs due to constraints on transmission infrastructure. It happens when the lowest-cost power cannot be sent to customers without overloading a line, leading to higher prices and causing utilities to sometimes curtail electricity.

MDU says it started incurring the excess costs after the Atlas Power Data Center went into operation last year. That is a 200 megawatt facility which is expected to use 700 megawatts once buildout is complete. It is powered by Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative. For comparison, many recently approved wind farms in North Dakota produce around 150 megawatts of power.

Getting charged for congestion when it happens is normal for a utility, but MDU alleges it is being charged twice for one problem by the Southwest Power Pool, a Regional Transmission Organization that manages the grid -- a market where power is bought and sold. MDU is a part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, another Transmission Organization, but entered into a contract with SPP, paying it to use some of SPP members' lines in northwest North Dakota......

SPP disputes MDU's complaint in its filings. An SPP spokeswoman declined further comment citing the pending case and pointed the Tribune to its FERC filings.

The first congestion charge comes from the contract MDU has with SPP, and the utility does not object to it. But the second comes as the result of an agreement between SPP and MISO to establish a "market-to-market" mechanism. Energy demands in one RTO region can have large impacts on another due to their proximity. Market-to-markets are put in place to manage this. In this case, SPP used the mechanism to levy a charge against MISO that signaled the need for its members to turn on more electric generation, according to State Public Service Commission Analyst Adam Renfandt. This charge got passed on to MDU. Market-to-market agreements are in place for lines across both RTOs' footprints, ranging from North Dakota to north Texas.....

Much, much, much more at the link.  

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That's All Very Interesting, But Look At This

Link here.  

Governor Doug Burgum is welcoming crypto mining and data center companies into North Dakota, saying in a January 2022 news release that it will diversify the state’s economy and attract high-paying jobs. However, these companies have come under scrutiny for a variety of reasons, including their high energy use.

Although there are likely close to a hundred crypto mining operations in North Dakota, the six largest ones are Applied Digital with locations in Jamestown and Ellendale, Atlas Power Data Center in Williston, Rainbow Energy in Bismarck, Core Scientific in Grand Forks and Bitzero in Nekoma. These places house many servers with high computing power, requiring much energy to run.

“This major investment in North Dakota will further cement our state’s growing reputation as a hub for data centers and cryptocurrency mining, thanks to our incredibly reliable, affordable and redundant power supply and a climate that lowers cooling costs for data center operations,” Burgum said in the same news release.

North Dakota is considered one of the best states for crypto mining because of its low energy prices, stable energy grid, cool winters to keep the machines cold, low taxes and less government regulation. Commerce Commissioner Josh Teigen said these centers benefit North Dakotans by providing jobs, increasing revenue to the state through taxes, and helping the energy grid...

The top three data centers in North Dakota together consume nearly as much power as every home in the state, according to the New York Times. However, Teigen said these companies are not taking power away from North Dakotans because the state exports over 90% of its electricity.

“We’re never going to see a case where a hospital loses power but the data center is still running,” Teigen said. “There’s a hierarchy of if curtailing needs to happen, what that priority level looks like and data centers are usually, especially on the crypto mining side, the first ones to get shut off.”

A spokesperson for the crypto mining center Core Scientific said it powers down its computers to conserve energy depending on the needs of the local population.

In northwest North Dakota, Atlas Power is being built by FX Solutions Inc. and is set to be the largest data center in the world. However, on June 20, the Williams County Commission told Mountrail-Williams Electric Cooperative to cut power to Atlas for not complying with building codes.

Much, much, much more at the link. And, not behind a paywall.