TEHRAN – Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said we could manage to pass through the summer peak period without any power outages if people manage their consumption, Tasnim reported on Monday.

The official noted that although the recent rainfalls has put the country’s hydropower generation in a better position than last year, the early jump in consumption and the early rise in the temperature indicate a higher consumption rate this year.

According to the Ministry of Energy, with the increase in temperature in different parts of the country and the increasing use of air conditioners that account for most of the summer electricity consumption, peak power consumption has recently risen to 46,000 megawatts.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran has put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods, so in the past few years power outages have been imposed in big cities to balance the power generation and consumption in such timespans.

Last year, the volume of water behind the country’s dams went so down that electricity output from hydropower plants fell to a decade low. The situation was worsen by a jump in electricity consumption due to a heat-wave that blanketed the country during summer and consequently led to a huge gap between actual power generation and consumption.

The energy ministry, being unable to control the situation through consumption management programs, was left with no choice but to once again order periodic blackouts in major cities in order to reduce the skyrocketing consumption. But, these frequent power outages caused a lot of damage to households, producers and manufacturers and people become querulous to the last degree.

This year, however, the situation has changed drastically and heavy precipitations in spring almost completely filled the country’s dams and it is expected that hydropower plants will go on full potential and compensate last year’s shortages.

However, on the verge of the new hot season, suddenly a huge jump in electricity consumption was reported by the energy ministry so that the consumption in the peak hours of Sunday April 19, exceeded 43500 MW while the figure stood at 38243 MW the same day last year, according to the ministry data.

EF/MA