Three Iran-Based Power Plants Will Sell Crypto Miners Their Electricity

Thermal Power Plant Holding Company (TPPH) stands as the owner and operator of various power plants across the country of Iran. In a statement made on Monday, TPPH made it clear that crypto miners would be able to buy electricity from three of its power stations. These power stations in question, have enough power output to supply half of New York City. This announcement came by way of the Tehran Times.

Three Power Plants Available For Crypto Miners

Mohsen Tarztalab stands as the head of TPPH, and gave a public statement about the matter at large. In his statement, he explained that three power plants, Neka, Ramin, as well as Shahid Montazeri, had the necessary equipment installed to facilitate this. Tarztalab highlighted that the auction documents themselves would be uploaded in the near future on the SetadIran.ir website.

Crunching the numbers, these three power plants can offer a combined power output of 5,485 megawatt-hours. Back in July of 2019, Iran had officially recognized crypto mining as a form of legitimate business activity.  Within the first six months of this new regime, it’s estimated that the Iranian government had issued out about a thousand of crypto mining licenses.

Innovating To Make Money

While the exact policy has been subject to confusion, Iran has made its mark thanks to this legislation. In terms of global Bitcoin mining output, Iran had managed to double its original value, going up to just shy of 4%. This stands compared to September of 2019, only two months after it became a sanctioned business.

Iranian power plants have a slight issue, as they are mandated to keep the national power grid at a fixed price, even if the production costs are on the rise. As a result of this, Tarztabel explained that TPPH is opting to sell directly to crypto miners, in the hope that this will help the company stay profitable.

Tarztalab did stipulate, however, that TPPH will only sell crypto miners power that has been generated from turbines that haven’t been supplying the national grid.

Iran’s Struggles With Crypto Mining

As for the power plants itself, Shahid Montezari makes use of oil to generate power, gaining its oil from a nearby refinery. Neka and Ramin, however, are power plants relying on natural gas, which generates about half the amount of carbon when compared to other fossil fuels.

Iran, with its state-subsidized power, stands as one of the cheapest places to mine cryptocurrencies out there. As a result, it has been subject to a lot of illegal mining operations, stealing power from the grid. The Iranian government has issued out a bounty program to try and keep things under control, and it seems to be managing adequately.