The amount of energy wasted on the way to reach the consumers in the country equates to the energy released by burning almost 500 million barrels of crude oil, a noticeably prohibitive volume, said the managing director of Iran Fuel Conservation Company on Saturday.
To optimize fuel consumption, IFCO and the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company are cooperating to improve the efficiency of oil and gas refineries, ISNA quoted Mohsen Delaviz as saying.
“Much energy is lost in the oil and gas refineries and in power plants,” he told the news agency.
A plan to improve the efficiency of old diesel-powered trucks and reduce fuel consumption and environmental pollution is on the Oil Ministry agenda and is being implemented by IFCO.
To help curb energy waste, IFCO is replacing 65,000 dilapidated trucks and trailers (with capacity to move 10 tons and manufactured in the 1970s or earlier) with new models. So far, 2,222 heavy vehicles have joined the cargo transport fleet.
According to Delaviz, the plan will help save 9.2 billion liters of fuel and emit 25 million tons less carbon dioxide into the air.
The official said almost 300,000 out of the total one million heavy vehicles plying the roads across the country are fully fit for the scrap yard and the number triples when the 16.1 million cars are included.
However, it is not just old cars that are to be singled out as gas guzzlers, the same is true for new automobiles produced inside the country.
“With help from the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran, there will be more stringent rules about automobile energy labels and carmakers will have two years to meet the new standards regarding fuel consumption,” Delaviz said. He did not provide details.
Total domestic fuel consumption since the start of the current fiscal in March has averaged 86.8 million liters per day -- a huge 9.6% increase compared to last year.
High and rising gasoline consumption is due largely to a number of factors, the most important of which are poor quality of locally-made cars, cheap gasoline prices and smuggling to neighboring countries where prices are several time higher .
>Power Plants
Another area where much energy is wasted is the power industry. Delaviz says the amount of energy wasted in power plants is equivalent to the energy released by burning more than 300 million barrels of crude oil. The rate of electricity wastage in distribution networks is also high.
Here too the problem lies with outdated electricity infrastructure and dilapidated equipment. Poor design of power grids and mismanagement are other reasons for high volumes of electricity wastage.
The Energy Ministry has said it is striving to reduce electricity wastage in the national grid to 9% over the next four years from the current 10.9%. To reach the target, plans call for increasing efficiency of power plants by using advanced turbines and upgrading old power stations.
Should electricity wastage reduce by 1%, costs can be cut by as much as $17 million annually. Officials say reaching the optimum wastage rate of 8% will save $3.3 billion in costs.
