In Ingushetia, mining theft of electricity worth over 89 million rubles was stopped

In Ingushetia, specialists of the Ingushenergo branch and a working group of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Directorate for the region stopped a large-scale electricity mining theft. This was reported by the branch of PJSC Rosseti North Caucasus on January 27.

It is noted that illegally connected equipment consisting of 334 devices designed for cryptocurrency mining was found in a non-residential premises on the outskirts of the rural settlement of Gazi-Yurt. The consumer there was originally installed a 160 kVA transformer with a maximum contractual capacity of 128 kWh.

"The violator unauthorizedly replaced the energy object with two more powerful ones - 630 kVA each, and the metering device was dismantled. An act of unaccounted consumption for 9.3 million kilowatt-hours was drawn up," - stated in the Telegram-channel of the company.

It is noted that this amount of energy is comparable to half a month's consumption in the largest city of the republic - Nazran. The company suffered damage of almost 89.2 million rubles.

Don't do that: "gray" miners steal electricity worth 10 billion rubles a year

How to combat such violations and whether liability should be tightened

Earlier, on January 13, Arsen Gadzhiev, acting director of Rosseti North Caucasus - Dagenergo, reported that a large mining farm, which illegally used electricity and caused damage of more than 180 million rubles, was found in Makhachkala. The volume of stolen electricity amounted to 27 million kWh, due to which the residents of Dagestan remained without light for a long time. Law enforcers were handed over 408 machines for cryptocurrency mining.

On January 1, a complete ban on cryptocurrency mining went into effect in 10 regions of Russia. A partial ban came into effect in three more regions. The ban was introduced in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Chechnya, Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), Lugansk People's Republic (LNR), Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, among others. The restrictions are valid until March 15, 2031. The relevant decree on the ban was adopted by the government on December 24, 2024.