Installation of electricity meters is starting in all villages and settlements in Svaneti. The relevant statement was made by the State Minister for Coordination of Law Enforcement Agencies, Mamuka Mdinaradze.

As Mdinaradze explained at a press conference held at the government administration, the goal of the metering is to eliminate illegal crypto mining in the Mestia municipality. According to him, electricity will remain free in Svaneti up to a certain limit.

“The Georgian government is beginning to take effective steps against illegal business activities that are harmful to the energy sector. One of the major challenges in this direction concerns the illegal crypto mining process in the Mestia municipality, where power lines are constantly overloaded due to this problem, and the illegal consumption of large amounts of electricity significantly harms both the country's energy supply and the local population of Mestia and the private sector. The quality of supply is deteriorating due to the overloading of the network and transmission lines, which also causes accidents, which, in addition to the local population, negatively affects tourism. More specifically, this is how the problem of illegal mining and electricity consumption is expressed in numbers - electricity consumption in the Mestia municipality in 2025 amounted to 133 million kilowatt-hours, while the electricity consumption of municipalities of a similar scale, taking into account all data, does not exceed 10 million kilowatt-hours in other cases. Accordingly, this means that the electric system and its financial damage amounts to at least 20-25 million GEL, which puts an additional financial burden on all citizens paying for electricity. In this case, we can be more specific: each subscriber in the country pays an additional 1.5 GEL each time they make a payment specifically because of this problem. To eliminate the problem, the metering process will begin in Mestia, which has not been possible until now due to various obstacles. It should also be emphasized that the sole purpose of metering is to eliminate illegal and hidden consumption of electricity. Electricity in Svaneti will still be free within the maximum amount set for each subscriber, and a limit and appropriate tariff will be set above this amount. As for metering, this will happen not only locally, but also on a large scale, in each village or settlement, which will allow us to identify the problem in a specific direction. Law enforcement agencies have already been instructed to provide maximum support and control of this process, as well as to maximally detect illegal consumption of large amounts of electricity and take appropriate measures. I call on everyone to respect the process. Any obstruction and violation of the law will be followed by strict legal response," Mdinaradze said.