Bitcoin miners have flocked to Texas over the past year after China banned the practice, and the US subsequently became the biggest hub for mining globally. Those crypto miners are expected to inflate electricity demand in Texas by up to 6 gigawatts by the middle of next year, according to Bloomberg.

Crypto mining companies essentially set up their own data centers filled with specialized hardware that “mine” Bitcoin by racing to solve ever more complex puzzles. That energy-intensive process is done to validate new transactions on the blockchain and allows miners to earn new tokens.

The Bitcoin network, as a result, uses more electricity annually than the country of Belgium. Its energy use, however, is estimated to have dropped over the past month after the price of Bitcoin took a nosedive. A lower value for the cryptocurrency, combined with high energy prices, makes it less profitable to run mining machines. In Texas, one “large publicly traded miner” plans to shut off between 8AM and 10PM for “several days this week,” Bratcher said.

Powering down, especially during those peak hours, also helps Texas’ power grid avoid potential outages. Hot temperatures typically place more pressure on electricity grids as people blast their air conditioners, and Texas is seeing triple-digit heat this week. The heat dome suffocating Texas has also starved it of much of its wind power, which typically generates about a quarter of its electricity. Texas’ power grid is also particularly vulnerable because it doesn’t connect to power grids in other regions. Other states can usually share energy with each other in an emergency.