Ethiopia just cut Bitcoin miners’ power to 23% of contracted capacity. That is a brutal hit for an industry built around cheap hydro.

Ethiopian Electric Power reduced electricity deliveries to data-mining companies by roughly 75%, after water inflows into hydroelectric reservoirs fell about 20% during an El Niño-affected dry season. Supply was reduced from 98% of contracted volumes to 75%, then 50%, and finally around 23%.
The technical problem for miners is straightforward: ASICs only earn when they run. Cutting power from 100% to 23% crushes hash-rate utilisation, while fixed costs such as machines, facilities and financing continue accumulating.
The irony is that miners had become a major customer for Ethiopia’s power utility. Mining companies consumed almost one-third of the country’s 9,730 MW generation, while contributing roughly 35% of Ethiopian Electric Power’s revenue.
Now households and industrial users are being prioritised.
For $BTC , the immediate network effect should remain limited because Ethiopia represents only a small share of global hashrate. But the bigger lesson is about mining economics: cheap renewable power is valuable only when it is reliable.
EEP plans to reassess the situation in October and could reduce supply further if water conditions fail to improve.
Ethiopia’s mining boom just met its biggest variable cost: the weather.