Mostafa Rajabi Mashhad, the spokesperson for Tavanir, an Iranian state-operated grid entity, has explained that electrical consumption has spiked by 7% in comparison to the previous year. Rajabi blames illegal cryptocurrency mining operations for the country’s increased electrical consumption and has warned that illicit mining facilities will be cut off from the grid.
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Tavanir Grid Spokesperson: ‘Crypto Miners Are Consuming Too Much Electricity in Iran’
This week, state-run electric company spokesman Mostafa Rajabi Mashhad told the Iranian press that cryptocurrency mining has pushed the country’s electrical consumption to unstable levels. Rajabi warned illegal mining operations would be shut off from the grid and highlighted that the Iranian government has yet to decide on the approved energy prices for these types of operations. Bitcoin mining in Iran has become a hot subject of late because of rumors that prices are astronomically lower than even China during the wet season.
Last September the government allegedly recognized mining as an “accepted industry” according to the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, Abolhassan Firouzabadi. The Iranian official stated that the mining industry was approved by the Ministry of Energy, the central bank, and the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. However, at the time, when the spokesperson told the press about the government’s recognition, Firouzabadi also stressed that the “final policy for legislating it [crypto mining] hasn’t been declared yet.”
Months later, in April 2019, Chinese miners reportedly found extremely affordable electric prices ($0.006 per kilowatt-hour) in the oil-rich nation of Iran. One Chinese miner recounted how he had to
