TEHRAN - Iranian Energy Ministry's Spokesman for Electricity Industry Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi said the country has increased the electricity imports from three neighboring countries to offset the surge in domestic demand, IRNA reported.

“Up to 650 megawatts (MW) of electricity is currently imported from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia,” Rajabi Mashhadi wrote on his social media.

The official noted that due to the infrastructure limitations and domestic demands, the mentioned countries are not able to supply the Islamic Republic with more electricity.

He underlined that managing consumption is the best possible option at the moment for preventing blackouts during the summer peak period.

The official called on people and businesses to manage their electricity consumption especially in peak consumption hours of the day.

Earlier this week, Rajabi Mashhadi said that Iran has stopped electricity exports to neighboring countries due to the surge in domestic demand and only 50 MW of electricity is exported to Afghanistan at the moment.

He announced on Tuesday that the country’s power plants are currently able to generate only 54,000 MW of electricity which is nearly 12,000 MW less than the domestic power demand.

Daily electricity consumption in Iran reached 66,250 megawatts (66.25 gigawatts) on Monday, July 5, to register a new record in the history of Iran’s electricity industry as a new heatwave has blanketed the country over the past few days.

The mentioned figure was 8,000 MW more than the consumption in the previous year’s peak period, and 10,000 MW more than the figure in the previous year’s same date.

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.

This year, however, new deteriorating factors like severe drought and the decline in the country’s water resources as well as a new wave of illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country have also worsened the situation.

EF/MA