Georgia will roll out electricity meters across the mountainous Mestia region in a bid to curb unauthorized cryptocurrency mining that authorities say is overloading the grid and causing repeated power outages.
Surge in power use tied to mining
Vice Prime Minister Gia Mdinaradze said electricity consumption in Mestia reached 133 million kilowatt-hours in 2025, more than 13 times higher than in comparable municipalities. He linked the spike largely to unregistered mining activity.
Authorities estimate the excess consumption has generated annual losses of 20–25 million lari, or up to about $9.4 million, for the national energy system. The overloaded network has also led to frequent disruptions for local households and tourists in the highland region.
Meters for every settlement, free baseline to remain
To identify unauthorized operations, the government will expand metering across all villages and settlements in Svaneti, the wider region that includes Mestia. Mdinaradze said each household will continue to receive a free baseline allocation of electricity, but any usage beyond that threshold will be strictly monitored and subject to tariffs.
Officials say the goal is to distinguish ordinary residential consumption from large-scale, unregistered mining, which often operates without permits and pays nothing for heavy power use.
Crackdown on illicit sites
Law enforcement agencies have been instructed to detect and dismantle illegal mining facilities as metering is rolled out. The government is also weighing additional measures to regulate energy use in the area, aiming to stabilize the grid and reduce financial losses linked to unauthorized consumption.
Georgia’s long-standing crypto mining role
Georgia has been a notable hub for cryptocurrency mining for more than a decade, thanks to relatively low-cost hydropower and favorable tax policies that have attracted digital asset operations.
In 2014, mining company Bitfury built a 20‑megawatt data center in the city of Gori, helping position Georgia as an early player in the global mining industry. Since then, the sector has evolved, with newer firms and changing energy use patterns across the country, while authorities increasingly focus on balancing industrial demand with grid stability and fair costs for regular users.
For traders, the developments in Mestia highlight growing scrutiny of mining’s impact on local power systems and the rising regulatory and cost pressures facing energy-intensive digital asset activities worldwide.
Want to understand mining’s impact on infrastructure? Explore our guide on crypto mining and how it works today.
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