A Nebraska crypto company wants to get bigger. Landowners decry NPPD’s use of eminent domain that will help it grow

NPPD has a duty to serve all customers, including crypto miners, McClure said. Jigowatt’s flexible load allows the local utility to interrupt the company’s service during busy periods, he noted.

For SCPPD, meeting Jigowatt’s demand grows the utility’s profits, which it can pass along to all of its customers by keeping rates low, said Oertwich, the board president. 

Borenstein said a crypto miner’s flexible energy load could “fill in the demand” and support the grid financially, but some states have made mistakes that drove costs up, such as making big investments for businesses that don’t show up or buying energy back from miners during peaks.

Hirs is skeptical that crypto mining’s massive demand for power will do anything but drive up electricity prices, as he believes it has in his native Texas.

Westhoff, the Jigowatt CEO, said his company provides value by paying hefty taxes, including sales tax on the energy it buys. 

The company and its tenants have a 2024 personal property tax bill of nearly $98,000, plus real estate taxes of about $18,000 for their Stanton County locations.

Jigowatt also pledged $100,000 toward a planned veterans memorial park in Stanton County.

Nebraska ratepayers will cover two-thirds of the transmission line’s $11 million price tag. The rest will be paid by ratepayers in a larger, 14-state region.

High-volume energy consumers in Nebraska including Jigowatt will pay for most of the $9.5 million in related substation enhancements.

Jigowatt won’t be directly charged for any of the infrastructure upgrades, but it has put up about $5 million in letters of credit that NPPD would keep if the company doesn’t end up using the energy it requested, according to Westhoff’s legislative testimony. 

Nebraska lawmakers took an initial pass at regulating crypto mining this year when they passed a bill allowing utilities to interrupt the operations’ electric service and to demand payment or letters of credit before making infrastructure upgrades.

Starting this fall, utilities will be required to publish a list of crypto miners they serve and their energy consumption. 

State Sen. Mike Jacobson, a North Platte Republican and longtime banker, said he’s concerned about “the taking of land when there’s not a clear public good.” Situations like the one in Stanton County have him thinking more broadly about eminent domain. 

“If I own a piece of property and I don’t want to sell it, I don’t know why I should be forced to sell it at fair-market value,” Jacobson said. “I think I should be receiving a premium … and our eminent domain laws don’t really (allow) for that.”

Oertwich, SCPPD president, hopes Jigowatt is just the beginning of Stanton County’s power growth. Offering a reliable energy supply, he says, can attract more businesses and more jobs. 

There’s talk of adding hog barns, chicken plants and other agribusinesses, said Oertwich, who also sits on the county board. 

“It ain’t (that) we’re looking for data centers,” Oertwich said. “We’re looking for any kind of growth we can get.”

The Wortmanns see the immediate load growth in darker, more existential terms. Mary worries Jigowatt’s expansion will create more noise and make living in their home “totally unbearable.”

The sound has decreased since Jigowatt changed a few of its air-cooled systems to liquid immersion cooling, which is quieter, Westhoff said. Tenant miners operating on the site still use fans, but Westhoff said his company will build only immersion-cooled systems. 

Mary Wortmann doesn’t buy that the crypto mine will grow quietly. She and her husband have talked about leaving the house they’ve lived in for three decades. 

“They’re going to be driving us out of our home,” she said.

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