To help check and reduce power consumption in peak hours, Iran’s first online electricity monitoring center was inaugurated by Mohammad Hassan Motavalizadeh, head of the government-affiliated Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) via video conference late on Tuesday.
“The main function of the center ‘Tavanir Mentoring Center’ (TMC) is to screen, analyze and control electricity used by heavy consumers namely factories and agro wells in peak hours,” Motavalizadeh was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Consumption level of at least 400,000 large consumers (those who use more than 30 kilowatt hours of electricity per day) can now be monitored online via the TMC, he said.
Once the center is fully developed, it will have real time access to all installed meters. According to the official, keeping an eye on power consumption has multiple advantages. In addition to cost saving through optimized consumption, monitoring of grids and power quality (steady voltage that stays within the prescribed range) in infrastructure and industrial plants ensures greater reliability.
“At the same time, regular power monitoring promotes awareness about actual consumption, which is vital for energy efficiency.”
Power monitoring can be also used proactively to prevent damage and outages, or as a form of analysis to isolate problem areas and find solutions, he noted.
Referring to the Smart Metering Program (SMP) aimed at digitizing the national power grid and provide subscribers with detailed feedback regarding electricity use, the Tavanir boss said a plan is underway and half a million energy-intensive farming, housing and commercial units own (smart electricity) meters since 2014.
So far 110,000 farming wells have been equipped with the new gadget.
Utilities in the developed and developing world are promoting modern electricity meters for economic and environmental reasons, namely to reduce cost and consumption.
Energy-Intensive Units
Motavalizadeh noted that five million energy-intensive units will be equipped with the smart meters over four years following an agreement signed between Tavanir and SATKAB, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry.
The news agency said the contract entails production and installation of five million smart meters in the agro, industrial, commercial and household sectors by 2023. The company delivered 100,000 meters in two months.
The agriculture sector will have priority because placing the new system on wells will help the Ministry efficiently monitor both power and water consumption.
Conservationists and economic experts say that programs like SMP are temporary solutions to cut consumption and much more needs to be done to reduce overall energy demand.
"We need a complete paradigm shift to encourage consumers to change their [high] consumption," he said, noting that spreading awareness is good but not enough.
Energy is subsidized in Iran and largely for this reason it is one of the most energy inefficient countries. Energy intensity of 83 million people is three times higher than the global average and 2.5 times that of the Middle East.
Smart meters are a new generation of connected electricity meters linking homes to utilities to measure and monitor power use. The system can support various aspects of electricity distribution management, consumption monitoring and billing.
Electricity consumption reached a peak of 56,000 megawatts on Tuesday, the highest in the current fiscal year that started in March.
Electricity demand is forecast to surpass 57,000 MW during the next few days as the mercury soars (35°C moving to 50 Centigrade in the south).
Network load reached 57,500 megawatts during peak hours in the last fiscal and is expected to surpass 60 gigawatts this summer.
