A significant increase in the number of underground crypto farms has been recorded in Dagestan. According to "Rosseti North Caucasus", the number of identified illegal mining installations and the amount of stolen electricity almost doubled in 2024. Over the past three years, the damage from their activities amounted to about 400 million rubles.
Vyacheslav Afanasyev, General Director of the "United Dispatch Administration of the Southern Energy System," noted that there is a problem of "gray" mining, when farms use household tariffs or do not pay for electricity at all. This situation leads to overloads at substations that previously had no problems.
Identifying illegal mining companies is a difficult task. Miners disguise farms as outbuildings and even locate them underground. In the Untsukul district, 35 cases of non-contractual electricity consumption were recently discovered. As a result of the raids, the police and "Dagenergo" brought 30 people to justice and seized many mining devices.
To verify the facts of electricity theft in the Untsukul district, energy workers developed a special plan. In the villages of Balakhani and Maidanskoye, where residents complained about power outages, the Internet was turned off and the load on the power grid was measured. The results showed a decrease in load of 3.2 megawatts, which indicates the presence of about 900 mining installations. This amount of energy could provide up to one and a half thousand homes, while less than 900 households are registered in these villages.
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