South African national power company Eskom seeks support for businesses such as Bitcoin mining to address operational crisis

According to MSN, South African national power company Eskom is considering responding to the business crisis by supporting Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, and data center operations. The CEO of the company, Dan Marokane, pointed out that with the widespread adoption of renewable energy leading to a continuous decline in electricity sales (a 4% decrease in 2024), new sources of revenue need to be developed to alleviate the debt pressure of 403 billion rand (approximately 22.7 billion US dollars). The current South African power grid is still facing a power crisis, with an average unexpected power outage of 15076 megawatts between June 13-19, which may trigger winter level 2 power rationing measures. Eskom plans to draw on the experience of Texas in the United States and utilize the interruptible power characteristics of Bitcoin mining sites to balance grid loads.