TEHRAN – Daily electricity consumption in Iran reached 53,502 megawatts (53.5 gigawatts) on Saturday to register a new record high, IRNA reported, citing data released by Iran Grid Management Company (IGMC).

As reported, the country’s electricity consumption stood at 42,185 MW on the same date last year, which means the consumption has increased by 11,317 MW.

As the temperature continues to rise in different parts of the country, the electricity consumption is also following the same upward pattern toward an unprecedented summer peak.

Earlier on Saturday, the spokesman for the electricity industry said the average temperature had risen which has led to an increase in the use of cooling devices and an upward trend in electricity consumption.

Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi noted that the upward trend of the temperature is expected to continue into the current week, adding: "Each degree of increase in temperature will add about 1,350 MW to 1,500 MW to the country's electricity consumption."

The country's electricity consumption is expected to even exceed 53,000 MW this week, which is an unprecedented figure, he said.

Based on the IGMC data, electricity consumption by the industry sector also exceeded 4,000 megawatts (MW) and reached 4,293 MW on the mentioned day.

In the mentioned date, the power storage of the country’s power plants fell to its lowest in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) to stand at 552 MW.

On May 7, Iran’s Power Generation and Distribution Company (known as TAVANIR) announced that the electricity consumption, since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20) up to May 6 increased by five percent compared to the same period last year.

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

“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.

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