The judge in Core Scientific's bankruptcy case approved a settlement with the bitcoin miner's exclusive energy contract negotiator under which Core Scientific will transfer more than $20 million worth of electrical equipment to the supplier, CoinDesk.com reported. The dispute relates to two facilities in west Texas that were supposed to cumulatively bring 1 gigawatt (GW) of power capacity to Core Scientific's portfolio of assets. Starting in the summer of 2021, Priority Power Management was hired as the miner's "exclusive energy manager and consultant," with responsibilities including negotiating power contracts and the build out of the two west Texas sites, according to a declaration filed with the court from Michael Bros, the miner's senior vice president of capital markets and acquisitions. However, as of May 2022, after "it became clear that the [two west Texas] facilities would not receive the anticipated power load," Core Scientific stopped making various payments to Priority Power Management, Bros said. Neither firm immediately replied to CoinDesk's request for comment as to why the power was not delivered. The miner also halted debt payments in October 2022 as it was running low on cash. In December, it filed for chapter 11 protection. Due to the work it had performed for Core Scientific up to the bankruptcy filing, Priority Power Management claimed it was owed about $30 million in the proceedings.
