Tenants maintain 80 Bitcoin mining machines and steal 60,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month

Someone secretly connected an external line in a rental house to steal electricity to power 80 "mining machines" to earn Bitcoin. The monthly electricity theft was 60,000 kWh, and the total annual electricity bill was nearly 600,000 yuan. The reporter learned about this bizarre electricity theft case from the Hankou Branch of the State Grid Wuhan Power Supply Company Customer Service Center on the 19th.

On the 13th, Zhou Yong, the electricity inspection supervisor of the Baibuting business class of the center, found that the power loss in a substation in Tanghu Village, Jiang'an District was soaring, so he led his team to the scene to investigate. When he arrived at the scene, Zhou Yong saw that a cable in the substation transformer cable box was directly "flying" to the upper floor of a rental house. Someone had privately connected a cable in the cable box to steal electricity. Zhou Yong took out a clamp-on ammeter to measure, and the current passing through the cable was 360A.

The inspectors followed the clues and found a shed built on the roof of the rental house. The doors and windows of the shed were closed and made a high-frequency "buzzing" sound. Zhou Yong was about to knock on the door, but was stopped. He called the police and was able to enter with the help of the police.

After opening the door, everyone was stunned. There were 80 professional "mining" machines, 4 axial fans and 1 air-inlet water-cooled curtain device on site. These devices run 24 hours a day. After inspection, it was found that the tenant was a "studio" that generated Bitcoins through virtual "mining" on the Internet. Bitcoin mining machines are computers used to earn Bitcoins. Such computers generally have professional mining chips and work by burning graphics cards, which consumes a lot of power. Bitcoin can bring huge economic benefits, but "mining" equipment consumes a lot of power. Driven by the benefits, electricity thieves take risks and privately connect external lines to steal electricity.

It is understood that the electricity consumption of all the equipment in this household for 24 hours is calculated to be 2,040 kWh, which is 61,000 kWh per month. According to the commercial electricity price, the monthly electricity bill is 53,000 yuan, and the total annual electricity bill is nearly 600,000 yuan. The household is currently detained by the police for suspected electricity theft.