Iran halts crypto mining to reduce energy consumption for approaching winter season
As winter arrives for this year, the Islamic Republic of Iran has passed a directive to halt operations of authorized crypto mining activities in the country in a bid to curb energy consumption for the cold season.
Chairman of the Board and the Managing Director of Iran’s Grid Management Company (Tavanir), Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, has made an official announcement that Iran is currently shutting down all of its crypto mining centres for reducing liquid fuel consumption in the country’s power plants amid decreasing temperatures.
Mashhadi has informed that the Iranian authorities have taken this action in order to considerably reduce energy consumption. The same was also reported by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) channel reported on December 25.
Mashhadi was seen explaining that the Energy Ministry has been looking for measures to be implemented since last month so that the use of liquid fuels in power plants can be reduced. This also includes cutting licensed crypto farms’ power supply, turning off several lampposts in less risky areas, combined with stringent supervision of electricity consumption.”
The government executive has also emphasized the importance of saving energy in Iran, calling on all its citizens to check their electricity and gas consumption as much as possible.
As per local reports, 70 percent of the fuel consumed in Iran goes into use for heating buildings. The new energy-saving measures announced by the Ministry are expected to cut energy consumption by at least 40 percent during the winter season.
While enforcing crypto mining restrictions on authorized operators, the Iranian government has also been working for combating illegal crypto miners. In the last weeks of November, local energy authorities had announced that they seized a total of 222,000 mining devices that were being used for illicit mining crypto since the industry regulations had been established.
Iran is one of the largest crypto mining countries in the world that accounts for an estimated 4.5 percent to 7 percent of the global Bitcoin hash rate.
The country had also previously put a temporary blanket ban on cryptocurrency mining activities in summer. It had cited the historical peak periods for power demand owing to hot temperatures back then. The ban was ultimately lifted in September as the Iranian power grid had started becoming more stable.
