Tavanir Says: Cryptomining Could Do Better by Going Green

Using renewables would be the best available alternative for cryptominers in Iran insofar as power consumption is concerned given their growing demand for electricity, an official with the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), said.
"The national grid is not in a position to continue supplying to cryptomining centers. With clean energy miners will not face restrictions. Building renewable power plants takes less time and is less costly," Mohammad Khodadadi, head of cryptominers power supply section at Tavanir, told the Way2pay website.
Cryptominers have been blamed for power shortages in recent months that fueled public frustration in summer when the lights went off despite the fact that the share of legal e-currency miners in the total electricity consumption is meager.
While cryptomining is legal in Iran, unauthorized farms have cropped up with increasing speed using subsidized electricity because they must pay much higher tariffs if they operate with a permit.
When the power situation worsened this summer, Tavanir started shutting illegal cryptomining units to prevent blackouts and safeguard the power infrastructure.
To ease mounting pressure on the national power grid, former president Hassan Rouhani in May ordered a blanket ban on all cryptomining until the end of summer.
However, Tavanir has recently warned about the possibility of power cuts in winter, because of what it says is the “persistent pressure on the grid” seemingly caused by illegal cryptomining.

New Regulations Planned

In a bid to address shortcomings of rules approved by the previous administration, the government has prepared a bill to regulate the work of cryptomining centers.
The new bill includes obligations for those wanting to run authorized crypto farm. It says, authorized miners have three options for purchasing power: they can build their own renewable power plants or purchase power from newly-established renewable plants; invest in energy-efficiency plans and receive incentives; buy electricity via the Energy Exchange.
Khodadadi supported the plan, despite the fact that observers believe it would add to the existing constraints of  mining the digital currency.
"The new bill seeks to prevent illegal consumption of subsidized power help miners access power at lower prices," he said.
 
Rejecting claims that the Energy Ministry wants to  dominate  the cryptomining business, he added, "The bill minimizes the  ministry's interference in supplying power to miners simply because it offers the miners the option to decide the power suppliers and negotiate the tariffs."
The ICT Guild Organization claimed earlier that the bill was initially prepared by the Energy Ministry under the former government and is "in the interest of the electricity industry mafia."
 t was not clear who the mafia is and what connection it could have to the key power industry.
"The ministry wants expanded control and regulation of the cryptocurrency industry," the guild rued.