Gas delivery to thermal power plants has soared by 200% over the last few days, rising from 40 million cubic meters per day to 120 mcm/d, dispatching director of National Iranian Gas Company said.
Mehdi Jamshidi Dana said as mercury rises, (13 degrees Celsius on average) and households consume less gas, fuel delivery to power stations is back to normal, IRNA reported.
Consumption surpassed 610 million cubic meters between January and February on average, when the temperature hovered around zero degrees Celsius. The cold spell in some parts of the country forced the National Iranian gas Company to deliver hardly 40 million cubic meters a day, down 60% compared to March-December (2019) period when the figure was 100mcm/d.
“That has reached 120mcm, up 200% compared to (Jan-Feb period) because households’ consumption has fallen to 480mcm/d.”
So long as consumption does not exceed 500 mcm/d, power plants will receive enough gas as feedstock.
Almost all power plants use natural gas to generate power and failing to consume gas wisely (households) will have ecological consequences because more thermal plants will have to switch to environmentally-harmful diesel and mazut to bridge the shortfall.
It is clear that the more dirty fuels are burnt (to produce electricity), more toxic fumes will be hurled into the atmosphere making a bad air pollution situation worse.
NIGC has said that gas supply to homes is stable across the network of pipelines stretching over 36,000 kilometers.
Almost all urban households and 80% of rural homes are linked to the national gas grid. Domestic gas consumption has been rising regularly in the cold season. The number of gas consumers increased 4% in 2019.
