Doug Handley from Paducah Power told commissioners that the city currently supplies electricity to three Bitcoin companies, each using hundreds of computers that run 24 hours a day. It also takes a large amount of air conditioning and ventilation to keep the computers from overheating.
Handley said Bitcoin miners are good customers for Paducah Power for a number of reasons. For all the power they use, it's done in a very small footprint that doesn't require miles of power lines, poles and transformers. They run at peak load all day, as opposed to mostly down time like most traditional customers. That helps pay the utility back more quickly on their cost to hook up the customer.
It's also important to note that even though the Bitcoin companies are using large amounts of power, the utility can interrupt their supply whenever necessary at times of high system-wide demand such as extreme cold weather to maintain safety of people.
Handley said Paducah Power's top ten users of electricity purchased 21 percent of the total power sold in 2024. Two of the three Bitcoin companies were included in that top ten.
The three Bitcoin companies purchased 4 percent of Paducah Power's output in 2024, but Handley said that last year they were not in operation for the full year, and were really just ramping up. He said so far in fiscal year 2025, those three companies are buying almost 20 percent of Paducah Power's output. Extending that growth over the rest of 2025, Handley estimated the Bitcoin miners will purchase about one-third of Paducah Power's total energy output.
Of the three Bitcoin companies, Handley said the medium-sized customer of the three currently uses about the same amount of electricity as one of Paducah's hospitals. That company could ultimately expand its capacity to use up to five times more power in the future.
He also noted that Bitcoin mining is a speculative business, and those customers could just as easily reduce their usage or even close down if the cryptocurrency market went down too far for them to be profitable.
Handley pointed out that the revenues from the Bitcoin miners are used to reduce the rates charged to the other customers in their system.
Mayor Bray also recalled earlier conversations that commissioners had with experts at the time Bitcoin miners were looking to move to Paducah. He said at that time the commission had concerns that Bitcoin operations could drive up the price of electricity for other customers, but experts told them that it could actually help maintain current rates.
In fact, during the Paducah Power audit presentation it was reported that the average residential customer using 1000 kilowatt-hours paid $157 in January of 2022. Three years later, that same customer only paid $152 in Paducah.
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