Iranian Bitcoin miners to enjoy special electricity access

September 22, 2020
By Hassan Maishera

The Iranian Government has granted cryptocurrency miners exclusive access to electricity from three power plants in the country

The Iranian Government has been increasing efforts to ensure that cryptocurrency mining and trading becomes very favourable in the country. The recent development made on this front is to grant Bitcoin miners exclusive access to three power plants in the country.

The announcement was made by Mohsen Tarztalab, managing director of state power utility Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH). Tarztalab told a local news agency yesterday that the government has put in place the necessary equipment at the Ramin, Neka and Shahid Montazeri power plants.

After putting in place the facilities, TPPH, which is in charge of the development and operation of thermal-based electric power plants, will begin handing out tenders for the three projects. Tarztalab added that the documents for the project would be uploaded to the SetadIran.ir website very soon.

According to Tarztalab, creating stable sources of income has been one of the primary goals of the electricity industry in Iran in recent years. However, due to price hikes and the need to supply constant electricity to subscribers has led to a large gap between revenues and expenditures in Iran’s electricity industry. Thus, the move to provide exclusive electricity access to Bitcoin miners is one way the state power company is looking to generate revenue.

Tarztalab stated that “The sale of electricity to cryptocurrency miners as one of the ways to earn money in the electricity sector”. He added that the laws and regulations designed by the Energy Ministry allows the state power company to allocate some of their power plants for cryptocurrency mining purposes.

No details on electricity production

At the moment, the TPPH is yet to reveal how much electricity will be produced or allocated to cryptocurrency mining from those three power plants. However, Tarztalab clarified that cryptocurrency miners would only receive excess power from expansion turbines built at the three power plants. He explained that this is because the turbines to be built will consume only natural gas and not liquid fuels like gas oil. The natural gas burns cleaner compared to coal, he added.

The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade in Iran has issued over a thousand licences to cryptocurrency miners. However, not all licenced mining farms are currently operational in the country. The government will also provide increased power capacity to each mining farm, with each of the 14 issued permits in July getting a capacity of 300 megawatts.