Chinese province to cut off Bitcoin miners from hydropower stations

Regulators from Yingjiang County in Yunnan, China have issued strict warnings to hydroelectric plants against supplying power to enterprises involved in Bitcoin (BTC) mining. 

A recent report claimed that the Office of the People’s Government of Yingjiang County issued notice to hydropower plants to strengthen oversight on Bitcoin mining operations. According to the announcement, the power plants have been given till Aug. 24 to delist mining companies from their grid’s “illegal” supply.

After the given deadline, the county reportedly plans to “forcibly dismantle” power supply to Bitcoin mining establishments within its jurisdiction.

Additionally, the notice requires hydropower stations to report to China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) after decommissioning the mining operators from the grid. Using this information, NDRC will help the Yingjiang province step up law enforcement efforts to ensure all illegal supplies of hydropower to Bitcoin miners are stopped completely.

According to the report, Yunnan Provincial Energy Bureau had previously claimed that Bitcoin mining enterprises heavily rely on “unauthorized private access to electricity, evasion of state transmission and distribution fees, funds and additional profit-making violations.”

Related: Bitcoin mining ban in China a ‘game changer’ for electric vehicle adoption

China’s Guizhou province recently decided to redirect the energy saved from the Bitcoin mining ban to develop charging infrastructure for electric cars.

The country has reportedly planned to build 4,500 charging stations in the southern province by the end of 2021, and eventually scale the infrastructure to support a network of 5,500 charging stations by 2023.

As a result of China’s resistance to crypto and Bitcoin mining, the country’s contribution to the global Bitcoin hash rate was reduced to 46.04%. Displaced Chinese miners have now started to seek refuge in more friendly jurisdictions such as the United States, Kazakhstan and Russia.