The Parliament Research Center has estimated the power consumption of cryptocurrency mining equipment in Iran to be between 930 to 1200 megawatts. According to this center, this figure accounts for about 6% of the country's electricity imbalance over the past four months and represents 14% of the monthly energy deficit during peak summer.
Methods for Evaluating Electricity Consumption
Based on the latest reports, the evaluation by the Research Center has been conducted using two methods: estimating Iran's consumption based on the country's share of global hash rate and examining network load changes during internet outages. According to the second method, after the nationwide internet outage in January 2025, the base load of the network decreased by about 927 megawatts between the hours of 3 to 5 AM.
Read more: Providing alternative fuel as a prerequisite for the operation of Fars industries in the cold season
However, part of this decline may be related to reduced activity of data centers and other online infrastructures; an issue that, alongside enemy attacks on infrastructures earlier this year and their consequences for electricity imbalance, could be considered influencing factors on the network's status.
Impact of Cryptocurrency Mining on Energy Deficit
The monthly electricity consumption for cryptocurrency mining is estimated to be close to 700 million kilowatt-hours. The Parliament Research Center states that considering a monthly electricity deficit of 5 billion kilowatt-hours during the hot months, the complete elimination of miners' consumption could increase the share of hours without outages and network deficit from 5.2% to 33.6% and reduce the frequency of voltage drops.
Providing the electricity needed for miners from thermal power plants requires about 8.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. The production of this amount of electricity is estimated to be equivalent to the consumption of about 2.1 billion cubic meters of gas or 2 billion liters of diesel. According to this report, if imported diesel is calculated at a minimum rate of 70 cents per liter, the annual fuel cost required for cryptocurrency mining reaches about 1.5 billion dollars; a figure that does not include the damages incurred to the industrial sector.
The report states that cryptocurrency mining in the residential sector is not economically justified due to being in the higher tariff brackets; however, it can be profitable in industrial, agricultural, and commercial sectors. Tavanir has reported identifying 2500 megawatts of unauthorized electricity consumption and estimates that about 2500 megawatts more of this type of consumption remains unidentified. In this context, the Islamic Consultative Assembly has recently approved an urgent plan to combat illegal cryptocurrency mining.
Read more: Mohammad Reza Aref: Providing energy for industry and agriculture is a government priority · Discovery of 34,000 liters of smuggled diesel in Abadeh County
