Texas braces for blackout: Heatwave pushes power grid to brink, Bitcoin mining halted

Texas, America’s second-most populous state is facing potential blackouts as temperatures soar to levels last seen in 1917 and the demand for power is set to outstrip supply pushing the power grid to the brink.

Residents have been urged to turn off unnecessary appliances to help reduce the heat-related demand. Meanwhile, businesses have also been urged to cut back. In response, most industrial-scale bitcoin miners turned off their machines – which could help conserve enough power to prevent rolling blackouts as Texas’ cheap energy costs and loose regulation has made it one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency-mining hubs.

The state which is home to EV maker Tesla has faced outages earlier in the summer and also freeze-out in winter. Energy-guzzling Texans faced six power plant outages in May.