How do I evaluate whether a mining colocation facility is credible and unbiased when it describes power pricing and uptime?

When a mining colocation facility talks about power pricing and uptime, treat it like a sales pitch until you can verify it. The key is to separate marketing claims from auditable facts.

1) Check whether the power price is all-in

Ask for a full rate card and look for hidden add-ons:

• kWh rate
• demand charges
• transmission/distribution pass-throughs
• metering fees
• facility fees
• maintenance surcharges
• curtailment clauses
• minimum consumption commitments

A credible provider should be able to clearly explain:

• what is fixed vs variable
• what is included in the quoted rate
• whether the rate changes with power markets or utility tariff changes

If they only advertise a very low “from” price, that’s often incomplete.

2) Ask for the actual utility structure

Good questions:

• Is the site on utility retail, wholesale, or a behind-the-meter setup?
• Is pricing tied to a PPA, utility tariff, or internal markup?
• Who takes the risk if wholesale prices spike?
• Are there any curtailment or demand-response obligations?

A facility that understands its own power procurement should answer these precisely and consistently.

3) Scrutinize uptime claims

Uptime claims can be misleading if they don’t define the metric.

Ask:

• Is uptime measured at the utility feed, facility power, or miner-level?
• Does it include planned maintenance?
• Over what time period was the number measured?
• Is there an SLA with credits, or just a marketing statement?
• Can they provide historical outage logs?

A claim like “99.9% uptime” is not very meaningful unless you know:

• the measurement point
• the reporting window
• exclusions
• whether independent records exist

4) Look for independently verifiable evidence

Credible operators often can show:

• third-party audits
• utility bills or redacted examples
• historical uptime reports
• insurance certificates
• engineering diagrams
• ISO or other operational certifications, if applicable
• references from existing clients

Be cautious if everything is “proprietary” and nothing can be verified.

5) Compare their claims with physical realities

For mining colocation, credibility often shows up in infrastructure details:

• transformer and substation capacity
• redundancy design
• cooling approach
• breaker and switchgear specs
• maintenance procedures
• remote monitoring and alerting
• security and access controls

If they claim huge capacity at unusually low prices, ask how the site is physically built to support it.

6) Evaluate incentives for bias

A facility is not necessarily unbiased just because it sounds technical. Their incentives matter.

Potential bias flags:

• they only quote best-case scenarios
• they emphasize average uptime without outage detail
• they refuse to explain rate variability
• they compare themselves only to worse competitors
• their sales team answers technical questions but avoids documentation

A more credible provider will acknowledge tradeoffs, for example:

• lower price but more variability
• higher uptime but higher cost
• fixed rate with minimum volume commitments

7) Ask for contract terms before committing

The contract often reveals the truth better than the website.

Review:

• SLA definitions
• remedies for downtime
• rate adjustment clauses
• termination rights
• force majeure language
• curtailment rights
• metering dispute process

If uptime matters to you, an SLA with real remedies is more meaningful than a promise.

8) Test for consistency

Ask the same question in different ways to different people:

• sales
• operations
• finance
• engineering

If their answers conflict, that’s a red flag.

Examples:

• Sales says “fixed power price”; finance says “subject to pass-throughs.”
• Ops says “99.9% uptime”; engineering says “excluding utility events and maintenance.”
• Website says “no hidden fees”; contract includes several.

9) Do a simple reasonableness check

Be skeptical of claims that are far outside market norms without a strong explanation.

Examples:

• unusually cheap power with no obvious energy advantage
• very high uptime with no redundancy
• no deposits, no minimums, no variability, and no risk-sharing
• guaranteed profitability language

If it sounds too good, it often is.

10) Use a due diligence checklist

A practical checklist:

• Full all-in pricing disclosure
• Explanation of utility/power procurement model
• Definition of uptime metric
• Historical outage data
• SLA and remedies
• Contract review for hidden charges
• Physical infrastructure verification
• Independent references or audits
• Consistent answers across departments
• Reasonableness versus market benchmarks

Bottom line

A credible and unbiased mining colocation facility should be:

• specific about power pricing
• transparent about what is and isn’t included
• precise about uptime definitions
• able to produce evidence, not just claims
• willing to discuss tradeoffs

If you want, I can also give you a red-flag checklist or a set of due diligence questions to send to a colocation provider.