TEHRAN – Iranian Energy Ministry’s Spokesman for Electricity Industry, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, has said that the electricity consumption by the agricultural sector has increased by four percent in the current Iranian calendar year compared to the previous year.

According to Rajabi Mashhadi, the consumption by the industry sector has also increased by 10.6 percent, IRNA reported.

“The growth of electricity consumption in the agricultural and industrial sectors comes as every year the number of electricity consumers is increased by about one million, while nearly 1,000 megawatts of new industrial subscribers are also added [to the consumer population],” the official said on Thursday.

The addition of new subscribers as well as the growth of consumption in both agriculture and industry sectors are the main factors contributing to the increase in consumption this year, he added.

He also underlined the increasing use of air conditioning devices in the summer period as one of the major reasons for the increase in the country’s electricity consumption, calling on people to manage their consumption and use the automatically regulated devices to decrease energy waste.

According to Rajabi Mashhadi, over 22,000 MW of the country’s electricity consumption is accounted for by the cooling devices, which is more than the average figure in the neighboring countries.

Last week, Rajabi Mashhadi said that the country’s power network is in a stable condition and no power outage is expected to occur during the summer peak period.

Mentioning the implementation of a program called “Zero 99” (a plan aiming for zero power outages in the summer of the current Iranian calendar year 1399), Rajabi Mashhadi said:” This program means passing the summer peak consumption period without blackouts.”

According to the official, construction of 2,000 megawatts of new power plants, upgrading the production capacity of existing power plants, carrying out power plant overhauls and entering power plants with full capacity into the power grid and construction of transmission networks have been among the activities carried out in Zero 99 program.

Earlier this month, Iran's Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Management Company, known as TAVANIR announced that the daily electricity consumption in the country reached 58,104 megawatts (58.1 gigawatts), registering the highest power consumption recorded in the history of Iran’s electricity industry.

Meanwhile, Rajabi Mashhadi had said that 14 provinces were in the red zone for high electricity consumption and TAVANIR might be forced to cut some over-consumers from the grid.

“If consumers cooperate [and manage their consumption], we will get through the summer without any blackouts, otherwise we will have to impose some restrictions,” Mashhadi told ILNA on July 18.

EF/MA