Overview
- U.S.-focused mining pools showed steep but temporary declines, with Foundry USA falling from about 260 EH/s on Jan. 24 to roughly 124 EH/s before rebounding near 134 EH/s by Monday, and Luxor sliding to about 16 EH/s, according to network data.
- The Energy Department authorized PJM, ISO New England and ERCOT to run plants at maximum capability and to access backup generation from facilities such as data centers.
- ERCOT forecast about 86 gigawatts of Monday demand, while prices surged, including $516.25 per megawatt-hour for Texas peak hours and PJM day-ahead levels not seen since early 2014.
- More than 800,000 customers were without power nationwide, with the largest outages in Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana as ice damaged trees, lines and equipment.
- U.S. natural gas benchmark prices jumped as much as 19% to above $6 per MMBtu, and disruptions spread to travel and schools, including over 3,500 flight cancellations and remote instruction in New York City.