TEHRAN - Head of Iran’s Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Management Company, known as Tavanir, says if the country’s electricity consumption increases at the current pace the infrastructure in this sector should be doubled.

“The average growth of electricity consumption in the country is about seven percent per year, and if this growth rate continues, the industry's facilities should be doubled every 10 years,” IRAN quoted Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh as saying on Wednesday.

The official noted that doubling the electricity industry facilities requires six quadrillion rials (over $142.8 billion) of investment which is a huge cost.

He went on to point out the encouraging strategy of the Energy Ministry to reduce electricity consumption and said: "Electricity tariffs are designed in such a way that with a 10 percent reduction in a subscribers' consumption, electricity bills will be reduced by 20 percent."

According to the official, implementing consumption management programs during the last summer saved the consumers 70 trillion rials (about $1.66 billion).

People should manage their consumption to pass through the hot season consumption peak without any power outages, he stressed.

Tavanir head also underlined the 100 percent coverage of electricity across the country as an indication of the progress of Iran’s electricity industry.

Back in August 2019, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that implementing consumption management programs had reduced the summer peak electricity consumption by 3300 megawatts (MW).

In this regard, Deputy Energy Minister for Electricity Affairs Homayoun Haeri had also said that the ministry planned to focus on consumption management and increasing the average efficiency of the country’s power plants to reduce consumption.

Later, the ministry’s spokesman Mahmoud Haqifam, announced that three policies of “modifying tariffs”, “issuing energy cards” and “changing consumption levels” were to be applied to amend electricity consumption patterns in the country.

EF/MA