Integrating Cryptocurrency Mining into Microgrid: A Bilateral Approach to Enhance Grid Performance

Abstract

With rapid rise of cryptocurrencies, integrating blockchain into electrical networks has become inevitable. This has led to a notable increase in mining within microgrids, introducing a new type of electrical load. These farms introduce new challenges, such as increasing peak loads, demand fluctuations, and reducing grid reliability. This paper presents a novel framework for managing cryptocurrency mining farms as flexible loads within power grids. A two-stage energy management framework is proposed: the first stage involves day-ahead scheduling to optimize operation cost, mining farm revenue, and reliability, while the second stage provides real-time adjustments every 15 minutes to minimize fluctuation cost. The results demonstrate that the proposed model reduces operation costs by 23.5% compared to unregulated mining loads, while also increasing social welfare by 12.7%. Furthermore, a 40% increase in mining demand leads to a 4.6% improvement in reliability compared to the baseline scenario, emphasizing the effectiveness of the proposed framework.