Update on the Energy Situation in Kazakhstan & Central Asia

We would like to update our clients and partners about the ongoing energy crisis in Kazakhstan.

Since we last updated you several weeks ago, there had appeared to be some initial progress with restoring the power grid in Kazakhstan especially in the southern regions of Zhambyl, Turkestan and Kyzylorda including reconnection 750 MW of 930 MW of power by January 25^th.

While the situation had begun to stabilize in Kazakhstan, the electrical grid in neighbouring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan suffered blackouts over the last week which put undue strain on the Kazakhstan grid once again. According to the most recent press release from the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC) on January 27^th:

“On 25 January 2022 at 11:59, Nur-Sultan time, In the Republic of Uzbekistan due to short circuit, 6 units at Syrdarinskaya thermal power plant shut down with the total loss of generation more than 1500 MW. The resulting power shortage in the Uzbek power system led to an unauthorised consumption of power from the Kazakh power system, which is connected in parallel operation with the Uzbek and Kyrgyz power systems. This resulted in a power surge in 500 kV lines of Kazakhstan North-East-South power transmission system and their subsequent overload.”

The Unified Power System (UPS) of Kazakhstan operates in parallel in the energy union of CIS countries (former Soviet Union including Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) which means that any undue strain on the power grids in either country puts additional strain on the Kazakhstani grid. KEGOC goes on to mention that “this emergency has not been attributed to digital mining consumers” however cryptomining companies like MineBest do continue to suffer the negative effects of the energy instability in the region. KEGOC continued to announce last week that:

“Given this power shortage situation, in order to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the households and the country’s economy, KEGOC, together with the power plants and power supplying organisations, in accordance with the requirements of the applicable laws and regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, constrained the power supply to the mining data centres.”

This means that MineBest, along with all other crypto mining companies with data centres in Kazakhstan, are still unable to reconnect their miners to the Kazakhstani grid. We apologize for the continued inconvenience this is causing our clients. The MineBest team in KZ continues to work long hours to find viable solutions including potentially relocating some of the miners, however no decisions have been made as there is still great political instability in the region. We ask for your continued support through this difficult time of great uncertainty.

Sincerely,

The MineBest Team