The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Energy called the total amount of electricity consumption by miners
Deputy head of the Ministry of Energy Snikkars: electricity consumption by miners in 2022 is less than a percent
Electricity consumption by cryptocurrency miners in Russia amounted to 0.6-0.8% last year, said Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snikkars.
In December, Snikkars predicted that the share of consumption by miners in total electricity consumption could reach up to 1.5-2% by the end of the year, increasing from 1% in 2021.
“According to our data, mining consumption at the end of the year amounted to about 0.6-0.8%. The forecast did not come true,” the ministry’s telegram channel quoted the Deputy Minister as saying.
At the same time, Snikkars emphasized that in the absence of legislative regulation of this type of business, almost the entire mining load was concentrated in the Irkutsk, Buryatsk energy systems, as well as the energy system of the Trans-Baikal Territory. At the same time, free capacities were selected for connecting to the network infrastructure, which, according to Snikkars, threatens to put on a long pause the implementation of other projects for the development of industrial production, large-scale housing construction, which the local government is currently developing.
“Already last year, consumption growth in the Irkutsk region amounted to 8.6%, which significantly exceeds the consumption dynamics in the UES (Unified Energy System – ed.) of Russia as a whole, at least half of the increase is the massive opening of cryptocurrency mining centers,” noted Deputy Minister of Energy.
In addition, a sharp increase in consumption in the southeastern part of the unified energy system (IPS) of Siberia has led to the fact that at present, the permissible parameters of the functioning of the energy system are provided by adjusting the planned repair campaign at grid facilities and generation in the autumn-winter period, he also said Sniccars. “And any technological connection is impossible without the implementation of long-term programs for the construction of extended 500 kV networks from the north of the Irkutsk region or generating facilities in the IPS of Siberia,” he believes.
