A mining farm that stole 56 million rubles worth of electricity was identified in the Kaliningrad region.
In the Kaliningrad region, ROSSETI Yantar Energosbyt specialists discovered a large illegal mining farm operating bypassing metering devices. According to the power engineers, an entrepreneur from the Gvardeysky district connected the equipment so that electricity passed by the meter and was not detected by the system. As a result, according to preliminary estimates, about 56 million rubles worth of electricity was stolen.
According to the company, the circuit was built in such a way that the current coming out of the transformer passed through the shunt and returned back to the line, completely bypassing the metering unit. This made it possible to keep approximately 300 cryptocurrency mining devices running around the clock without paying for the actual amount of energy consumed. During the inspection, the equipment was seized, and the materials were handed over to the police.
The company noted that the entrepreneur has the opportunity to compensate for the damage without trial. If he refuses to do so, the situation will be considered in court. The illegal connection was detected thanks to the energy consumption monitoring system — ROSSETI regularly analyzes load anomalies in order to promptly detect illegal mining points.
Similar cases are being recorded across the country more and more often. At the beginning of the month, another large farm with 400 pieces of equipment was found in the Irkutsk region. The damage there amounted to about 9 million rubles, and although the connection was official, the cost of energy for mining was significantly underestimated. Industry experts point out that illegal connections and attempts to hide actual consumption are especially common in regions with low tariffs or high network load.
Power engineers warn that illegal mining creates an additional load on transformers, which can lead to accidents, local outages and even fires. Therefore, the company is strengthening monitoring of load surges in order to quickly stop such schemes.
