The State Duma Energy Committee’s proposal would subject cryptocurrency miners in Russia to annual disconnections of up to 500 hours.
This measure aims to address the energy shortage in certain regions. The proposal offers an alternative approach to avoid implementing specific tariffs aimed at miners, which could lead to a fivefold increase in power costs.
Miners of Cryptocurrencies Might Be Disconnected for up to 500 Hours Each Year
The Russian government is considering implementing a reform that could disconnect cryptocurrency miners based on the amount of energy that is freely available. According to the report that Izvestia published, a new proposal that has been supported by the Energy Committee of the State Duma and that is informed by a study that the Higher School of Economics carried out suggests that miners should be classified into a separate group responsible for the reliability of the power supply, which could potentially result in their disconnection.
Despite the fact that households are included in a power reliability group that may experience up to 72 hours of disconnection per year, miners may be subject to disconnection for as long as 500 hours per year (which is equivalent to nearly 21 days) in order to address the power shortage that is occurring in some areas of the country.
The Ministry of Energy is preparing a proposal that would provide an alternative to increasing electricity rates for cryptocurrency mining operations. The proposal is currently being examined.
Electricity Shortages Are Already Being Experienced in Some Parts of the Country
These initiatives aim to address the issues in certain areas of the Irkutsk region, where there is a shortage of energy caused by the increasing cryptocurrency mining activity, taking advantage of the world’s lowest electricity prices.
On the other hand, rising electricity prices might affect the mining expansion currently taking place. Oleg Ogienko, the director of government relations at Bitriver, stated that if this scenario materializes, mining companies might decide to relocate their operations to residential areas, operate more ambiguously, or even shift their activities to different locations.
Alexey Tarapovsky, the founder of Anderida Financial Group, expressed his disapproval of the recent increase in tariffs specifically targeting cryptocurrency mining. He elaborated:
Raising the expenses exclusively for mining could be seen as discriminatory pricing and may result in an inequitable situation. A multitude of enterprises and businesses consume comparable quantities of energy.
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