Governor of the Irkutsk region Igor Kobzev proposed to give mine the status of entrepreneurial activities and even promised the help of cryptocurrency miners – the head of the region is ready to allocate them with individual sites for industrial activities, “Interfax” writes.
“I, as you know, turned to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation [Alexander Novaka] and I consider [mining] as entrepreneurial activities. The government has its own opinion on this subject, it supported us,” said Kobzyev. Recognition of mining entrepreneurship will oblige mines to pay for electricity on higher tariffs.
In October, the governor complained to the authorities on the “underground” miners. Kobzev announced the “avalanche-shaped energy consumption” in the region, the level of which has already grown up to dozens of times compared with 2019. The head of the region expressed concern that the state of networks does not allow such a load growth. According to him, the mining cryptocurrency has already led to electricity disconnections in suburbs, where mining farms are mainly concentrated.
The situation has become more serious with the approach of the winter heating season, since most of the population area is heating the houses of electricity. Kobzov believes that miners must negotiate with the network company about connecting their devices over the dedicated line to reduce the load on the distribution networks of settlements. “We are ready to provide landmarks to the industrial mining. For example, in Ust-Ilimsk. But it is necessary to do this in a civilized way, so that there are separate lines, without taking into account the networks of settlements,” said the governor.
The population of the Irkutsk region pays for electricity at the lowest tariffs in Russia. From July 1, 2021, for the urban population, a tariff for electrical energy was installed 1.23 rubles per kilowatt-hour, and in rural areas the tariff is even lower – 0.861 kopecks for kilowatt-hour. That is why miners attracts this region so much.
In October, Russia came out in the third place in the world of Mineland Bitcoins. From September 2019 to August 2021, the share of the country has grown almost twice – from 5.9 percent to 11.2 percent. From October 2020, the average monthly indicator of the total computing power connected to the equipment has grown from 5.2 to 13.6 EH / S.