The ban on mining cryptocurrencies in several regions of Russia released up to 370 MW of power, facilitating the load on the mains, but without solving all the problems, since gray mining and the undertaken profit of energy distribution companies call into question the effectiveness of measures, the market participants said.

The ban on mining from January 1 to March 15, the largest saving amount of 320 MW brought the regions of Siberia, the state operator said. According to the chairman of the board of the organization Fedor Opad, the restrictions will reduce the need for a new generation of electricity by 1200–1300 MW annually. The restrictions in the Irkutsk region, Buryatia and the Trans -Baikal Territory, introduced from January to March, allowed to pass the peak of winter loads without turning off the power supply, said the representative of the operator.

However, acting The general director of the Ilya Electric Grounding Company Ilya Brilliants in an interview with Kommersant said that the effect of the prohibitions of the Ministry of Energy is ambiguous.

“Despite the release of capacities, they turned out to be unclaimed, and the end consumer did not feel a positive effect from the ban on cryptocurrency mining on the quality of power supply,” the head of the company said.

Ilya Diamonds said that as a result of the seasonal ban “Irkutsk electric grid company”, it did not receive about 800 million rubles of revenue for electricity transfer services, which were one of the sources of the implementation of about 9500. Contracts of preferential technological connection.

Director of the Industrial Mining Association Sergei Nerdelov noted that the ban on mining in the regions without taking into account the market conditions does not give the desired effect and forces the market participants to continue their activities illegally. Narodov cited the experts of the Higher School of Economics, who argue that the transfer of existing infrastructure costs miners one and a half to two times more expensive than the construction of new data centers.

Seasonal restrictions for miners in Siberia will last until 2031, and in a number of regions of the Caucasus and new territories a ban acts constantly.

Earlier, MTS Energytool experts said that the most popular region among mining companies is the Irkutsk region, where more than 10% of Russian farms are located for digital assets.