TEPCO ventures into digital asset mining

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Japan’s largest electric utility company is venturing into block reward mining with green energy that would potentially have been wasted.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is exploring how it can redirect the surplus power from its green energy production sites to block reward mining, arguing that it could generate billions annually for the company and promote green energy in the East Asian nation.

The initiative is led by Kenji Tateiwa, the president of Agile Energy X, a TEPCO subsidiary he helped launch in 2018. Speaking to a local outlet, Kenji revealed that the idea was born out of Japan’s output control, a measure where renewable energy producers are requested to limit their production in response to consumer demand.

Typically, the power generation from photovoltaic cells peaks in the daytime, and to prevent oversupply—which could lead to an imbalance and a consequent blackout—the grid operators require some producers to halt operations temporarily. This unused generation capacity is what Tateiwa wants to channel to block reward mining.

A survey by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that in 2023, this output control in Japan suppressed the production of at least 1,920 gigawatt-hours. This figure will only go up as the Japanese government pushes for carbon neutrality, where renewable energy accounts for at least 50% of the country’s needs.

Under a setup where 50% of Japan’s power supply is from green energy sources, Kenji estimates that over 240,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity could be wasted as it would be too much to store in batteries. He estimates tapping 10% of this electricity to power block reward mining could generate 360 billion yen ($2.5 billion) for Agile Energy X annually. For context, TEPCO generated $48 billion in 2023.

The company has already set up mining operations in the Tochigi and Gunma prefectures.

“Green energy producers have to operate their businesses on the assumption that part of the power they generate is wasted. If bitcoins were to provide a new source of income for similar power producers, who are being exposed to overinvestments, that would prompt more green energy to be introduced,” he told the paper.

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