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Bitcoin (BTC) miners given access to electricity from three plants in Iran

State power utility firm Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH) will allow crypto miners to tap into electricity produced from three power plants for their mining activities.

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Tue, 22 Sep 2020, 06:12 am UTC

Since legitimizing cryptocurrency mining in July 2019, Iran has been taking measures to support registered firms such as the recent shutdown of 1,100 unlicensed Bitcoin (BTC) mining farms last month. Recently, the government granted Bitcoin miners exclusive access to electricity from three of the Middle Eastern nation’s power plants.

State power utility firm Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH) announced that the Iranian government has granted Bitcoin miners exclusive access to electricity from three power plants, according to Bitcoin.com. On Monday, September 21, TPPH managing director Mohsen Tarztalab confirm to a local news outlet that the “necessary equipment has been installed in three power plants of Ramin, Neka, and Shahid Montazeri.”

Tarztalab said that TPPH will be issuing out tenders from the three projects which “will be uploaded on the SetadIran.ir website in the near future.” The government utility company is responsible for developing and operating thermal-based electric power plants.

Under the arrangement, Tarztalab said that cryptocurrency miners will only get excess power generated from the three power plants for use in their mining operations. The power produced from the three plants is cleaner because their turbines “do not consume liquid fuels like gas oil and only natural gas.”

The TPPH executive clarified that the three plants are not connected to the power grid. “These turbines are not connected to the national grid and the electricity generated by them is only used by the power plant itself,” Tarztalab added.

It is yet unclear just how much power produced by the three plants will be allocated for use by crypto mining firms. Iran is an attractive destination for miners given its cheaper power rates.

Iran has been strictly monitoring the country’s crypto mining industry and has been weeding out unlicensed players recently. Last month, the government shut down more than a thousand miners for operating illegally.

Iran closed 1,100 unlicensed crypto mining farms after they were identified with the help of whistleblowers. Last July, the country’s utility firm offered rewards of up to 100 million Iranian rials, which is around $2,400, to whistleblowers who help energy officials identify illegally operating Bitcoin (BTC) mining farms.

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