The Iranian Parliament’s unwise decision to abolish the law on implementing Daylight Saving Time (DST) in spring and fall is expected to raise electricity demand during peak hours by at least 2,000 megawatts, a member of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said.
“The huge rise in consumption comes at a time when the gap between power supply and demand exceeds 15 gigawatts in summer and the wrong decision will simply add insult to injury,” Alireza Kolahi was also quoted as saying by Barq News website.
“The construction of a power station with a production capacity of 1,000 MW costs $750 million,” he said, adding that the power sector’s loss due to the parliamentary decision is estimated to reach $1.5 billion.
It is noteworthy that building such huge facilities usually takes five years and cannot help redress the growing imbalance in the short run.
According to Kolahi, who is also the head of the Board of Directors at Iran's Electrical Industry Syndicate, the parliamentary move was against the government’s plans to curtail demand, one of which is changing working hours in state-run offices as of June 5 to avoid power outages.
“Offices are obliged to start at 6 a.m. so that Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) can meet power demand during peak hours that start at 2 p.m,” he said.
State organizations’ power consumption is constantly monitored remotely and their electricity supply will be cut off if they do not comply with Tavanir’s regulations.
Changing working hours is expected to help with load management in provincial capitals, big cities and towns.
The initiative is projected to reduce power consumption by as much as 1,000 MW.
Shifting Scheme
As per the hour shifting scheme, staff will start work at 6:00 a.m. instead of 7:30 a.m. and leave at 1:30 p.m. instead of 2:30 p.m.
The program calls for state organizations to switch off all cooling systems after 12:00 p.m. and also reduce consumption by at least 30% in other sections (lighting, computers and other electrical appliances) between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Kolahi said state organizations will face power outages if they do not comply.
Another controversial decision taken by Tavanir is to restrict power supply to factories in summer, forcing industries to cut production and lay off their staff.
“Majlis Research Center, the influential research arm of the parliament, has expressed its strong objection to end the practice of adjusting the clock,” the official added.
According to a report published by the center, DST saves energy and its abolition is detrimental to the energy sector.
DST helps cut energy consumption by at least 3% and reduces electricity use during peak demand (1 p.m. and 5 p.m.) by about 2%, the report said.
The rationale behind the study of DST-related energy savings was that energy use and the demand for electricity for lighting homes are directly related to the times when people go to bed at night and rise in the morning.
In most households, 25% of electricity are used for lighting and small appliances, such as TVs and stereos.
A good percentage of energy consumed by lighting and appliances occurs in the evening when families are home. By moving the clock forward by one hour, the amount of electricity consumed each day will decrease.
Studies conducted in 100 countries show DST trims the entire country's electricity usage by a significant amount, about 3% each day, because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances.
Power Usage
For example, in New Zealand, power companies have found that power usage decreases by 3.5% when daylight saving starts. In the first week, peak evening consumption commonly drops by around 5%.
According to Hassan Motavallizadeh, the former head of Tavanir, power deficit in Iran amounted to 12,000 megawatts last summer and not abiding by laws like DST can further deteriorate the situation.
DST is the practice of moving the clocks forward one hour from Standard Time during spring, which lasts through summer, and changing them back again in the fall.
The general idea is that this allows us to make better use of natural daylight: moving the clocks forward one hour in the spring grants us more daylight during summer evenings, while moving clocks back one hour in the fall grants us more daylight during winter mornings.
In 2007, the parliament passed a law mandating the official time to be changed twice a year.
According to the law, the official time was changed once at the beginning of the calendar year (on March 20, or March 21 in leap years) and once at the start of the second half of the year.
The Majlis Research Center strongly suggests that the law should be enforced again as in the past and there are no reasons to end the practice of switching clocks.
Iran’s peak load record was broken last July. The country's electricity consumption reached 68,000 megawatts on July 2, 2022.
According to Iran Grid Management Company, the summer peak is expected to use 69 gigawatts.
