The state of New York may be a difficult place to set up a mining venture in the region as lawmakers have ruled that power companies can raise their electricity rates if miners choose to use the state's hydropower.

Charging Higher Electricity Rates to Cryptocurrency Companies

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to allow municipal electricity providers the ability to raise rates for bitcoin miners and data centers. The reason NY officials chose to let power companies raise electric rates is because 36 municipal power suppliers petitioned the PSC committee. The power companies believe that when data centers and cryptocurrency miners take advantage of the cheap hydropower in the state, average customers lose out. The PSC ruling on March 15th states:  

The New York State Public Service Commission today ruled that upstate municipal power authorities could charge higher electricity rates to cryptocurrency companies that require huge amounts of electricity to conduct business. The ruling was needed to level the playing field and prevent local electricity prices for existing residential and business customers from skyrocketing due to the soaring local demand for electricity.

Cryptocurrency Entities: A Different Character Than Load Characteristics Typically Seen

According to the power companies, several of them have seen an increase in requests from commercial customers seeking large amounts of power. "These requests come mainly from similar types of potential customers: server farms, generally devoted to data processing for cryptocurrencies," explains the filing.