TEHRAN - Managing Director of Tehran Electricity Distribution Company said Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) has allocated 7,253 megawatts (MW) of electricity for Tehran province during summer, so considering the current consumption level Tehrani households must save 1,540 MW in summer to prevent blackouts.

According to Hassan Sabouri, over seven million electricity subscribers are connected to the Tehran Electricity network, comprising 20 percent of the country’s total power consumers.

The official noted that 9,000 government entities are also based in the capital Tehran, accounting for 17 percent of the city’s total electricity consumption.

Sabouri said electricity consumption in Tehran in recent weeks has increased by 18.5 percent compared to the previous year’s same period, adding that each degree of temperature rise would boost the city’s electricity consumption by 100 MW.

According to Sabouri, a group of 2,500 supervisors has been tasked to monitor the electricity consumption in government entities during the peak consumption period in order to report any misuse back to the governor to be pursued.

He further stated that the Energy Ministry paid 300 billion rials (about $7.14 million) to the capital city’s industrial units as a reward for their electricity consumption management during the summer’s peak consumption period.

This year too, the ministry has allocated the same amount for those industrial units whose consumption is within the range that Tavanir has determined, he added.

Although every year nearly 3,000 MW is added to the country’s power generation capacity, the reduction in the rainfalls and the decline in the water storage behind the dams has reduced the electricity generation offsetting the added capacity, he regretted.

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.

In late July 2020, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his ministry was considering new incentive packages for low-consuming households and industrial electricity subscribers.

He also said that two programs were prepared for high-consuming subscribers so that by implementing these plans, these subscribers would also join the low-consumer group.

The official described the first program as a training course to teach consumption management methods with the help of knowledge-based companies and start-ups, and said: "Start-up companies will be formed in this field and will help us optimize the consumption of high-consuming subscribers by providing simple solutions."

The second plan was to install solar panels on the roofs of high-consuming subscribers' houses so that such subscribers would meet their electricity needs by installing these PV stations.

EF/MA