Foreign media: Russia plans to cut off power supply to crypto miners during energy shortage

As Bitcoin miners continue to increase their production capacity, Russia's Energy Ministry is considering cutting off power to crypto miners in times of energy shortage. This comes after it was reported that Russian crypto miners produced about $3.5 billion worth of Bitcoin last year. Vedomosti quoted Russia's Deputy Energy Minister Yevgeny Grabchak as saying that power suppliers should have the right to "cut off power supply" to miners "at any time." However, Grabchak reiterated what the Russian Energy Ministry said earlier this year. Officials claimed last month that power companies may soon provide excess power to miners. "Miners are a new category of consumers. We are actively discussing these issues. We don't always have peak electricity demand. When there is no large load on the grid, the grid usually has spare capacity." Russian Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilev said in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month that cryptocurrency miners "should be ready to move to areas of the country where there is no energy shortage." Meanwhile, Grabchak said the industry will be allowed to choose whether to self-limit its electricity use or use "automatic" IT solutions. He explained: “If there is no capacity shortage - which has been the case for most of this year - we may be able to make excess capacity available to some consumers. But this can only be done if they limit their consumption. Alternatively, they can install automatic solutions that disconnect them from the grid.” (Cryptonews)