Cryptocurrency miners would be able to take advantage from surplus electricity and the cold environment at five power plants in Siberia.
Russian energy company En+, which holds those power plants, is already negotiating with investors to establish crypto mining farms near them.
Russian energy firm En+ Group is already gearing up to offer electricity to cryptocurrency miners at its power plants, according to a report on Vedomosti.
En+ CEO Maxim Sokov was quoted as saying in the said report:
“We are talking about five sites. They are in the Irkutsk Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, located in southeastern Siberia. Two sites are near the town of Ust-Ilimskin, one is near the city of Bratsk, and the other two are near the city of Irkutsk.”
Near Ust-Ilimsk, on the Angara River, En+ has a hydropower power plant (HPP) with a capacity of 3,840 MW and a coal-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP) with a capacity of 525 MW.
Near Bratsk, En + has a hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 4,500 MW.
Near Irkutsk, which is also the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, there are two sites: a hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 662 MW and a [coal-fired] combined heat and power plant with a capacity of 655 MW.
En+ said the frigid climate of the region around the three areas and the cheap cost of electricity has made the perfect conditions for cryptocurrency mining.
Sokov divulged that En+ is at the moment, discussing the matter with several investors, “including international ones – Chinese and American,” for “the construction of mining farms that will act as consumers of electricity,” Ria Novosti described, saying:
“En+ will offer miners to build farms to produce cryptocurrencies next to En+ power plants in Irkutsk, Bratsk, and Ust-Ilimsk.”
CEO stressed that his form would also benefit from enticing Chinese miners, since their home country is currently implementing strict regulations against crypto mining.
According to Vedomosti, the total demand for power supplies from cryptocurrency miners could reach 100 MW for En+ Group in 2018, and the group could potentially earn about 980 million rubles.
