The Ministry of Energy proposed a compromise on tariffs on the crypto market
[ad_1]
Miners do not want to go “into the shadows”
Industrial miners operating under the “white” flag have prepared counterproposals to the Ministry of Energy, which proposed to increase tariffs for legal entities and citizens mining digital “coins” in energy-scarce regions of the country by two to five times. According to experts, the department’s initiative will actually become a “funeral death” for the Russian big data economy and will deprive Russia of its leadership in the field of digital technologies.
Recently, the electricity sector has been developing dynamically. In December, System Operator UES recorded a historical maximum of electricity consumption for the Russian Federation, which amounted to 168,765 MW. Since the beginning of the year, energy consumption in the country has increased by another 4.9%. The January 2023 record was exceeded by 2,821 MW.
One of the reasons for the boom is the growing popularity of cryptocurrency mining. The volume of the Russian mining market amounted to about 2.5 GW of consumed electrical power. Last year, our country for the first time came in second place in Bitcoin mining in the world, with a share of total power consumption of over 13%. The United States is in first place with a mining market volume of over 5 GW (about a third of the world market).
The success of the Russian Federation was largely due to two factors. Firstly, cheap hydroelectric generation in the south of Siberia (a cascade of large hydroelectric power stations was built on the Angara and Yenisei in Soviet times) provided the lowest energy tariffs in the world for individual miners. For example, in the Irkutsk region, the electricity tariff for the population is 1.42 rubles/kWh for the city and 0.994 rubles/kWh for the village. And without restrictions. It’s no coincidence that here, in the garages and homes of local residents, crypto farms have been growing like mushrooms after rain all last year. The Angara region, Buryatia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory have become a Mecca for illegal miners from Russia, China and Kazakhstan.
Secondly, Western sanctions against Russian banks had an impact. Demand for the services of Russian hosting providers from foreign companies in 2023 increased by 30%. Data centers in which industrial miners store cryptocurrencies have essentially become alternative channels for cross-border settlements between participants in international trade. This significantly softened the West’s blow to the Russian economy. It is for this reason that the United States imposed sanctions against the largest Russian data processing center (DPC) operators.
However, the achievement had a side effect – due to illegal mining, once-energy surplus regions began to experience acute energy hunger. To solve the problem, the Ministry of Energy has prepared a draft government resolution to increase electricity transmission tariffs for mining centers in energy-deficient regions by two to five times. The department believes that the initiative will stimulate the move of miners to energy-abundant areas.
However, the “breakthrough” idea was met with skepticism by market participants and independent experts. “Price discrimination will lead to players going into the shadows or the fragmentation of business, which will reduce the amount of revenue collected into the budget,” says Sergei Sasim, director of the Center for Research in the Electric Power Industry at the Institute of Economics and Industry Infrastructure Regulation at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. In his opinion, the problem of energy shortage in the regions of the Russian Federation can be solved in other ways. For example, if necessary, disconnect miners from electricity for up to 500 hours a year (almost 21 days). In addition, according to the analyst, a system of tariff regulation should be developed. “Currently, electricity prices are the same at any time of the day, but the load on the networks is different. During peak hours, higher tariffs can be set for all entrepreneurs, and low ones at other times,” explained Sasim. According to him, another good option for solving the problem is to introduce a certain limit on electricity consumption for households, which can be paid at tariffs for the population. Everything else must be calculated at higher prices.
The introduction of a consumption limit for citizens was supported by First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy Valery Seleznev: “If a garage consumes energy like a mini-factory, it is clear that a crypto farm is operating there and it is necessary to switch to a business tariff.” In his opinion, interdepartmental imbalance is preventing the elimination of energy shortages: “The Ministry of Economy recently proposed introducing an infrastructure payment for miners, which will then be transferred to Rosseti for development. But for some reason the Ministry of Energy opposed it, due to the fact that… the state power grid holding company does not operate in the Irkutsk region.”
“In energy-scarce regions, it is reasonable to free up the capacity of those engaged in illegal mining, including at the tariff for the population,” noted Oleg Ogienko from BitRiver. According to his estimates, in the Irkutsk region the share of gray mining accounts for about 250–300 MW, which is comparable to the volume of industrial mining.
As a source in the energy market, who wished to remain anonymous, explained to MK, if the draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation, which was prepared by the Ministry of Energy, is accepted, then the winner will be one well-known Russian oligarch, whose structures control hydrogeneration and distribution electricity networks in the Irkutsk region and Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is no secret that his companies are also major players in Bitcoin mining. He benefits from the departure of competitors both from the gray mining sector, who are now illegally mining “cue balls” in garages and cottages, and from data center providers who pay fees to the budget. “But the national high-tech innovation sector will definitely be under attack. You can forget about second place in the world market for the extraction of digital “coins”. Moreover, under the conditions of unprecedented Western sanctions, the ability of Russian entrepreneurs to pay foreign partners for the supply of goods and services will sharply narrow.” In his opinion, this is well understood in the White House, so the initiative of the Ministry of Energy will most likely be shelved.
Newspaper headline:
Miners do not want to go “into the shadows”
[ad_2]
Source link
