Crypto miner ‘stole electricity worth B10 million’

MEA files police complaint after raid on shophouses in Bang Khunthian

A cryptocurrency miner running 223 computers stole some 10 million baht worth of electricity over a one-year period, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) says.

The MEA has filed a police complaint against the tenant of five shophouses on a charge of stealing electricity in Bangkok.

The theft was uncovered following a raid carried out in the Tha Kham area of Bang Khunthian district late Friday night by officials from the Bang Khunthian office of the MEA and Metropolitan Police Division 9.

Saniwat Woradithee, assistant director of the Bang Khunthian MEA office, said the shophouses were fully wired with no meters installed, to run 223 computers mining bitcoins.

Damage from the theft, which is believed to have carried on for a year, is estimated at 10 million baht. The shophouses were occupied by a single renter, he said.

According to the Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, it takes an estimated 1,449 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy to mine a single bitcoin. That’s the same amount of energy an average US household consumes in approximately 13 years.