TEHAN – Iranian Energy Ministry plans to increase the water and electricity tariffs of high-consuming subscribers by 16 percent, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian announced.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of some energy projects on Tuesday, Ardakanian said the tariff increase for ordinary subscribers will be seven percent like the previous years.

Although the high-consuming subscribers will have to pay more money for their water and electricity, low-consuming households are awarded a 100-percent discount on their bills, following the implementation of a program called “Power of Hope”.

Earlier this month, the managing director of Iran’s Power Generation and Distribution Company (TAVANIR) announced that seven million subscribers have received a 100-percent discount on their electricity bills in the framework of the Energy Ministry’s “Power of Hope” program.

Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh said, “Since the start of this program last August, the subscribers have had some good cooperation with us and we hope that this cooperation will increase during the upcoming hot season.”

Implementation of the mentioned program has reduced the number of high-consuming subscribers across the country by 6.1 percent.

According to TAVANIR, the “Power of Hope” scheme was aimed to change the attitudes of household consumers towards the proper use of energy resources and consequently protect the environment.

The Energy Ministry started the implementation of the mentioned program in mid-August 2020.

In late August 2020, Ardakanian had announced that various programs were prepared for high-consuming subscribers to encourage them to reduce their consumption and join the low-consumer group.

The official described the first such 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, Ardakanian explained.

Increasing the water and electricity tariffs for such consumers is also the ministry’s new approach to encourage subscribers to manage their consumption.

According to Ardakanian, currently, the country’s power production condition is desirable and all the necessary power units are active and running smoothly, however, the rainfall situation has not been desirable and people should manage their consumption to avoid possible outages.

The official further mentioned the annual overhaul of the country’s power plants and noted that the units that are going through overhaul will be ready for the hot season’s peak consumption period and the new units under construction will also be inaugurated based on the schedule.

EF/MA