TEHRAN – Electricity consumption in Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) up to May 6 has increased by five percent compared to the same period last year, IRIB reported on Wednesday, quoting an official with Iran’s Power Generation and Distribution Company (known as TAVANIR).

According to Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, despite the coronavirus outbreak which led to the closure of some industrial units, the country’s electricity consumption has increased.

“If this trend continues after all inactive units start operating, the country's energy consumption will increase very significantly and we will face power shortages during the peak consumption periods,” he regretted.

The official further mentioned the Energy Ministry’s incentives for encouraging consumption management, saying last year, nearly 3.06 trillion rials (about $72.85 million) were paid to the households and industrial subscribers cooperating in the consumption management program in the form of incentives and relief packages, however.

Earlier this week, Mashhadi announced that Iranian Energy Ministry managed to save 3,876 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the previous calendar year by implementing consumption management programs.

Cooperation with the various sectors resulted in reducing the consumption by 3,876 MW which is equal to the output of five 1000MW-capacity power plants, he said.

According to the official, Energy Ministry signed memorandums of understanding with 135,000 industrial, agricultural, and domestic subscribers under the framework of consumption management programs, last year, to pass the summer consumption peak without outages.

Back in January, Tavanir head had said that Energy Ministry managed to prevent the consumption of 70 trillion rials (about $1.66 billion) worth of electricity during the summer peak period by implementing consumption management programs.

“Implementation of this program allowed us to pass the summer without any power outages,” the official said in a meeting of directors of the Energy Ministry subsidiaries’ public relations departments.

He noted that Iran’s electricity network has 100 percent coverage across the country, adding that this is an indication of the Iranian electricity industry’s leadership in the region and the world.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage the consumption and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

EF/MA