Iran to Provide Crypto Miners With More Electricity Subsidies

The Iranian government has continued its crusade to support the country’s fledging crypto mining space. In its latest show of help, Tehran has announced a program that will allow miners to access a significant surplus of energy.

A Great Time to be an Iranian Crypto Miner

According to reports from local news media, the Iranian Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH) has announced a plan to provide three power plants’ electricity output to miners in the country. The program, which will be conducted after a tender, improves miners’ access to one of their most fundamental resources, thus improving their overhead efficiency.

Mohsen Tarztalab, the agency’s head noted that the country’s struggling economy had been a concern for the government. It now seeks to create an enabling work environment that will benefit companies and provide employment opportunities. The country’s electricity has also seen a significant gap between revenues and expenses, and the government sees crypto mining as a means to improve revenues and provide income for the state.

However, the initiative comes with a condition, as miners will only be able to get the output from expansion turbines in plants. According to Tarztalab, this process won’t include any consumption of liquid fuels. By using just natural gas, the government is hoping to make the process as green as possible.

Tarztalab noted that the expansion turbines are independent and don’t participate in the national grid’s electricity production process. So, the government will be able to conduct this electricity transfer without necessarily affecting the country’s electricity production capacity.

A Structured Mining Industry Yields Results

So far, Iran has done a laudable job of legitimizing the crypto mining industry and providing an enabling environment for players. So far, the process has yielded some positive results. In July, local media house Mehr News Agency reported that the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade had issued 14 mining licenses to foreign companies, as investments in the country continued to surge.

Iran’s mining license requirement began earlier this year, as Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri issued a directive to that effect. To get a license, miners would need to disclose information on their officials, the mining equipment they use, and the size of their operations. A report from the country’s Banking and Economic System Reference Media (IBENA) back in January confirmed that over a thousand companies already got their licenses.

Another incentive for registered miners is a reduced power rate, with Mehr News Agency reporting that miners are now getting charged as low as $0.11per kilowatt-hour (kWh). For peak summer season (June to September), however, they will have to pay $0.46 per kWh.

The government has also set up a process that rewards citizens for blowing the lid on illegal mining facilities. Last month, Tavanir, the state power company, announced that it had shut down 1,100 of such criminal outfits already. Per reports, every whistleblower gets a 100 million rial ($480) reward for their help.