Millions left without power after huge blackout hits Central Asia (The day after Bitcoin miners were denied power)

[Mary Wilson]

Major cities in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan hit by power outages after an ’emergency imbalance’ in a power grid.

25 Jan 2022
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Millions of people are left without power after a huge blackout hit three Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan – after a major power line was disconnected in Kazakhstan, according to authorities and residents.

The capitals of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as well as Kazakhstan’s economic hub Almaty suffered power cuts at around lunchtime on Tuesday, with media and officials reporting that the blackouts had extended far into the provinces of the three countries.

The grids of the three ex-Soviet republics are interconnected and linked – via Kazakhstan – to the Russian power grid which they can use to cover unexpected shortages. ...

Restarting power plants

Authorities in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan said they were restarting power plants after emergency shutdowns and would initially remain disconnected from the Central Asian grid.

... Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the airport in Almaty, where the power cut did not affect the whole city, was continuing to work normally, but that Tashkent’s airport had stopped receiving flights due to the power outage.

Tashkent’s metro, the largest in the region, had also ceased working, an AFP correspondent noted, adding that tap water was barely running.

Bishkek’s airport was working at reduced capacity, local website 24.kg reported, citing the airport’s management. ...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/...s-central-asia

[Emily]

I hope this wasn't sabotage. This industry has some mainstream regulated players, but there are also pirates out there. It all seems a waste of precious resource to me.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/kazakhstan-unplugged-bitcoin-miners-before-blackout-hit-region

Kazakhstan Unplugged Bitcoin Miners Before Blackout Hit Region

Kazakhstan cut off companies mining cryptocurrencies from its electricity supply a day before parts of the country were hit by blackouts, the country’s latest clampdown on an industry it once welcomed.

Kazakhstan has blocked companies mining cryptocurrencies from Jan. 24 to Jan. 31, a spokeswoman for state-run grid operator Kegoc said, confirming an earlier story by Informburo.kz. A blackout hit parts of the country on Tuesday.
...
...Miners -- drawn to Kazakhstan by its cheap coal power -- made it the second-largest Bitcoin producing country in the world after the U.S. in August, according to data from Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/power-blackout-hits-kazakhstan-kyrgyzstan-and-uzbekistan/ar-AAT7hJz

Power blackout hits Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
23 hrs ago

ALMATY (Reuters) The central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan suffered electrical power outages in major cities on Tuesday, according to authorities and residents, after a major power line in Kazakhstan was disconnected.

...
The blackout caused chaos across the region for several hours, with subway trains stuck in tunnels and skiers on lifts, airports closing, district heating and tap water pumps going idle and traffic lights switching off.

Neither of the three countries reported any problems with its power stations that could have caused the imbalances.

[sharon sanders]

bump this

[Emily]

https://eurasianet.org/kazakhstan-government-poised-for-war-on-gray-crypto-miners

Kazakhstan: Government poised for war on gray crypto-miners
Electricity consumption surged by 8 percent last year.

Almaz Kumenov Feb 4, 2022
Kazakhstan’s government has vowed to crack down on unlicensed crypto-miners amid concerns that the industry is putting an excess strain on the country’s aging power grid.

In a Facebook message on February 3, Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Minister Bagdat Musin made an appeal for the public to assist in detecting what he described as “gray miners.”

“Gray miners are doing a lot of harm to our power grid. The energy costs of illegal mining are estimated to exceed 1 gigawatt,” he said.

China’s de facto ban on crypto-mining last summer precipitated a boom for the industry in Kazakhstan, where operators took advantage of relatively low electricity costs to turn the country for a while into the second-biggest crypto-mining center in the world. A windfall for miners has come, however, at a cost to the rest of the population...

[sharon sanders]

bump this