TEHRAN - Iranian Energy Ministry’s spokesman for the power department says in the cold season households account for 80 percent of the country’s total natural gas consumption and the country’s power plants are forced to use alternative fuels, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

“In recent weeks, due to cold weather which led to an unprecedented increase in gas consumption in the home sector, we have encountered limitations regarding the power plants fuel supply, which fortunately did not cause any problems and we used alternative fuels,” Mostafa Najafi Mashhadi said.

He further called on the consumers to manage their consumption during the cold seasons, saying that a reduction of only 10 percent of the gas consumed by the households could play a significant role in sustaining electricity generation.

Eerier this week, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said daily gas consumption by Iranian households has recently reached about 600 million cubic meters (mcm) which is equal to 80 percent of the country’s gas supply.

With the households’ daily consumption at the record high of 600 mcm, and the country’s power plants needing nearly 50 mcm of gas to meet the electricity demand, it appears that the industry and exports would face serious shortages.

Iran’s daily natural gas consumption hit a record high of 592 million cubic meters (mcm) a day in early January due to the heavy snowfall and cold weather that blanketed the country.

In late January, the Iran Fuel Conservation Company (IFCC) called for optimization of the consumption of energy carriers announcing that the country’s natural gas consumption reached a record high.

The spokesman of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) had also emphasized the need to pay more attention to the optimization of gas consumption, saying: “Although the domestic gas sector is fully supplied considering the increase in gas production in South Pars field as well as the development of the country's gas network, however, the increase in domestic consumption could interrupt the gas supply to the country’s industrial sector, power plants, and petrochemical plants.”

EF/MA