A state-owned electric utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia is set to halt all new electricity-connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for a period of 18 months. 

The British Columbia government made the announcement in a statement on Dec. 21 stating that the pause will allow the government and BC Hydro to develop a permanent framework that can better balance the needs of crypto miners and both its residents and businesses in the region.

Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said that the move was made to preserve the clean energy it provides for its residents and businesses that create jobs and are more environmentally friendly.

“Cryptocurrency mining consumes massive amounts of electricity to run and cool banks of high-powered computers 24/7/365, while creating very few jobs in the local economy.”

At the moment, BC Hydro provides service to seven crypto-mining operations. Six more are in the advanced stages of connection to the system, totaling 273 megawatts — these are not expected to be impacted.

However, new cryptocurrency mining projects will not be able to initiate the process of connection with BC Hydro, and projects at the early stages of the connection process will also be halted, it said, adding that there are 21 cryptocurrency mining projects that are currently requesting a total of 1,403 megawatts of electricity.

The Ministry noted that this is equivalent to the energy needed to power…