Russian miners have been proposed to be included in a new category of electricity consumers

The initiative is presented as an alternative to the Ministry of Energy’s proposal to raise tariffs in deficit regions

24.01.2024 - 15:50

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What’s new? Experts from the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University) have proposed to single out Russian miners into a new category of electricity consumers, which in case of a resource shortage will allow disconnecting them from supply for up to 500 hours every year. The university’s study was commissioned by the Industrial Mining Association and sent to the government.

Izvestia’s material

What else is known? The proposal has already received the support of the first Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Valery Seleznev. According to him, participants in the cryptocurrency mining industry “are quite unpretentious and can painlessly disconnect from the network on warning.”

The initiative of the HSE University is presented as an alternative to the proposal of the Ministry of Energy to increase tariffs for mining centers in energy-deficient regions by 2-5 times. It was published in late December and has not yet been adopted.

However, the Ministry itself said that it does not consider other options, as the increase in tariffs should encourage industry participants to move to regions with a surplus of resources. Officials also reminded that the cryptocurrency mining industry is in the gray zone, as it is not included in OKVED and is not subject to taxation.

Russian lawmakers planned to legalize mining as early as the second half of last year, but the reading of the bill was delayed due to “interdepartmental contradictions,” reported Anton Gorelkin, deputy of the Duma IT Committee.

Earlier, Texas miners were cut off from the grid at the request of the Electric Reliability Council due to severe frosts and high demand for the resource.

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