With the pattern of declining rainfall and by extension less hydropower production, the government is expecting power deficit of 3,000 megawatts.
A spokesman for the Energy Ministry said Wednesday more judicious consumption and less waste is the only solution if blackouts in summer are to be avoided.
“A massive 34% decline in water stored in dams helping hydroelectric power plants operate suggests we will be short of 3,000 MW compared to last year,” Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi said.
In the first month of the new Persian calendar year (March 21-April 20) “electricity consumption shot up 20% across the country compared to the year ago. If we want to move from the hot season without outages, this [high consumption] should decrease,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
As a measure to control consumption, offices and companies affiliated to the Energy Ministry are obliged to reduce power use by 50% compared to last year by less use of their cooling systems, the official noted. Later the same will be notified to other organizations and companies.
“We will set the centralized cooling systems at 26 degrees centigrade and urge homes to turn off their coolers when they leave,” Rajabi Mashhadi said.
According to the managing director of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir), the utility is working to shut down illegal cryptocurrency mining farms to save power.
Those who illegally use subsidized power will be fined depending on losses they inflict on the national grid. “Their farms will by disconnected and they will face prosecution," Mohammad Hassan Motevalizadeh was quoted as saying by ISNA.
In 2018 and 2019, as per Tavanir’s contract with farmers and industry owners, those who turned off their water pumps and electricity-intensive tools between 12 pm to 5 pm were eligible for discounts in their bills.
Power officials say if industries and farmers do the same this year there will no blackouts in summer. Changing working hours too helped in load management in provincial capitals, big cities and towns in the past two years.
To make up for the near permanent increase in power consumption the government says it is adding 2.3 GW to the installed power capacity of 85 GW by building new power plants.
