Washington State’s Public Utility District No. 1 of Pend Oreille County and Cascade Digital Mining, LLC have executed a contract that will allow Cascade to purchase up to 100 megawatts (MW) of energy for its cryptocurrency mining operations.
The power supplies will be delivered to a site formerly owned by Ponderay Newsprint Company that was purchased in mid-2021 by Ponderay Real Estate, LLC, a subsidiary of Allrise Capital Inc., as part of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy auction.
The power contract requires Cascade to purchase a designated amount of power from the PUD’s existing resources, and allows Cascade to make monthly elections for market power purchased through the PUD at market prices.
Cascade is required to prepay for all of its power and has take-or-pay obligations for certain service delivery fees to the PUD and the PUD’s wholesale provider, Shell Energy North America (US), L.P.
The short-term contract commences September 1, 2022, and runs through September 30, 2023. For comparison, Cascade’s proposed load of 100 MW is more than three times the size of the PUD’s average general service load.
As required by the contract, Cascade provided a guaranty from Allrise and a confirmed letter of credit as security for the transaction. The PUD also executed a wholesale power agreement with Shell Energy to provide a substantial amount of Cascade’s anticipated market power purchases.
All costs associated with preparing for this transaction were charged to the customer under a separate cost reimbursement agreement.
