The Hut 8 Mining facility in Medicine Hat - CHAT News File Photo

By Charles Lefebvre

More power

Hut 8 makes agreement with city for additional electricity for site

Sep 4, 2019 | 11:42 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A cryptocurrency company operating in Medicine Hat has announced they’ve reached an agreement with the city to add additional electricity capacity to its operation.

Hut 8 announced Tuesday it is adding an addition 4.3 megawatts on electricity to the Medicine Hat plant, bringing the total amount of electricity used to 67 megawatts.

Hut 8 CEO Andrew Kiguel says the additional electricity will allow the company to increase production at the Medicine Hat facility. They currently have 56 BlockBox data centres operating on the site, which contain chips that mine for bitcoin.

“What we found were that the boxes were working better than expected, the efficiency level was better than we were getting, so in order to maximize out on those boxes, we would’ve required electricity.”

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In 2018, Hut 8 signed a 10-year contract with the City of Medicine Hat to supply power for its site in Box Springs.

Kiguel says the request for additional electricity involved discussions with the city over the past several months to determine how much electricity they were able to receive to ensure no interruption to regular service.

He says they’re appreciative of the relationship the company has with Medicine Hat.

“It’s nice when you can work closely with the city,” Kiguel said. “We believe we’re the largest electricity client the city has. I believe it’s a very symbiotic relationship where we provide a lot of additional revenue to the city. In exchange, we’re able to run our operations there, and we’re able to employ people in the city as well. “It’s nice to have the ability to work with the city, talk things through, and they’ve been very reasonable.”

The city says the increased power being used by Hut 8 will not have an impact on power for regular city customers.

In it’s recent second quarter update, the company reported $28.3 million in revenue between April and June 2019, and earned a mining profit of $17.8 million, The company mined 2,816 bitcoin.