Thailand’s PEA Shuts Down Bitcoin Mining Farm for Stealing Electricity Worth Millions of Baht

Thailand’s Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has shut down a Bitcoin mining farm after discovering that its operators tampered with power meters to steal electricity worth hundreds of millions of baht.

Acting on a tip-off, the PEA, in collaboration with the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), conducted a raid on the mining farm situated in the Phanat Nikhom district of Chonburi on Monday.

During the operation, authorities seized 996 Bitcoin mining rigs and uncovered a scheme devised by the farm’s operators to manipulate their electricity meters.

This operation enabled them to use electricity for their mining activities largely free of charge, resulting in massive losses for the Thai state electricity provider.

The authorities have yet to identify those responsible for running the operation, but the CSD is obtaining arrest warrants from the court.

According to the PEA, the operation was planned meticulously to avoid raising suspicions. An unnamed staff member testified that the theft was cleverly timed to occur only at night.

During the day, the power meter functioned as usual to evade detection by the authorities.

Bitcoin mining is a complex process that involves using high-powered computers to solve mathematical problems, which helps verify transactions and create new bitcoins.

Being an energy-intensive activity, electricity comprises the largest operational cost for Bitcoin miners, prompting some operators to engage in illegal activities to increase their profit margins.

Thailand’s power grid has been persistently abused by illegal miners. Over the past year, several raids have been conducted after the country experienced a mining boom following China’s crackdown on the sector in 2021.

In August 2024, the PEA took down a similar operation in Ratchaburi, a town west of Bangkok, after discovering unregistered miners draining power from the local electricity grid.

The incident led to frequent blackouts in the area and higher costs for residents.

More recently, two individuals from the Surat Thani province were charged with stealing over $280,000 in electricity to power their mining rigs in an abandoned property.

Meanwhile, back in 2022, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) in Bangkok spearheaded a series of raids, dismantling over 50 crypto-mining operations that were causing yearly losses of over $10 million in stolen electricity.

Similar activities have been uncovered in other parts of the world. As previously reported by crypto.news, Malaysia’s national electricity provider disclosed losses upwards of $100 million in an October 2024 report.

The losses were attributed to electricity theft to run Bitcoin mining hardware, prompting the government to take action.

These incidents have sparked a global reckoning, with governments tightening regulations, limiting electricity use, hiking tariffs, and even imposing outright bans to exert greater control over the crypto-mining industry.