TEHRAN - Meysam Jafarzadeh, the director-general of the Crisis Management Office in the Iranian Energy Ministry, has stressed the need for taking necessary measures to ensure sustained supply of fuel to the country’s power plants during the cold season, IRIB reported.

“Given last winter's experience, if we do not provide fuel for power plants in late autumn and winter this year, we will have a lot of difficulty in meeting electricity demands; we must think about the necessary preparations for the winter of 1400 (the current Iranian calendar year started on March 21) from now on,” Jafarzaeh was quoted by the portal of Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir).

He pointed out three main reasons for the importance of fuel supply to power plants during the cold season, saying: "first, considering the fact that we are witnessing a decrease in liquid fuel reserves in power plants compared to the previous year, the fuel condition is very important."

The increase in gas consumption by households in winter causes less gas to be supplied to power plants, and if liquid fuel storages are not full, power plants will face problems operating on full capacity, he explained.

The official pointed to the state of overhaul and periodic repairs of power plants as the second reason and added: “This year, due to the intensive operation of the power plants from mid-April until today, we will definitely face many units that need overhauling, and this issue has a serious impact on the country’s power generation situation.”

He further mentioned not using hydroelectric power plants as the third reason and said: "Considering that hydroelectric power plants have been used to control the network load this summer and also the weather forecast predicts that there will be no serious rainfall in catchments this cold season, we will definitely face some problems in operating hydroelectric power plants.”

considering the new approach of the Oil Ministry, which has made the supply of fuel to power plants one of the short-term priorities, stable and accurate planning for the overhaul of power plants can ensure the stability of the electricity network during the cold season, Jafarzadeh stressed.

EF/MA