TEHRAN – The deputy head of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) has said that the country’s power plants are 98 percent ready for a sustained supply of electricity for the rest of the summer season, IRIB reported.

According to Hamid Baderestani, now that two-thirds of the summer peak consumption period is passed, the TPPH expects no serious issues in supplying electricity for the rest of the season.

“This year, 670 repair operations were carried out in large power plants, and by increasing the capacity of power plants, we were able to increase the capacity of our power plants by more than 700 megawatts,” he said.

Electricity consumption in Iran has been surging as the temperature across the country hit new records highs this summer.

Earlier this month, Iranian Energy Ministry's Spokesman for Electricity Industry Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi said that electricity consumption since the beginning of the current summer season (June 22) increased by 6.5 percent compared to the previous year’s same period.

Stating that the electricity industry is passing the hottest days of the year and consumption demand is high, Rajabi Mashhadi said: “The electricity demand is predicted to reach 72,500 megawatts, which is a very high figure.”

He called on all subscribers to manage their consumption in order to pass through the peak summer demand period without any outages.

Back in July, Rajabi Mashhadi predicted peak electricity consumption in Iran to surpass 72,500 megawatts (MW) in the summer due to the increasing temperature across the country.

The official also announced the launch of the Energy Ministry’s new program based on which all subscribers whose consumption is less than the figure for their previous year’s same period will be rewarded with discounts on their electricity bills.

Iranian Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian said earlier that the electricity consumption in the country broke the last year’s record by more than 3,000 MW this year.

“The amount of electricity consumption has been 6,000 megawatts more than the same period last year and 3,000 megawatts more than last year's record,” the minister said.

Mehrabian said the consumption is expected to increase even further as the temperature is foreseen to go higher.

EF/MA