While power consumption during peak hours rose by less than 5% between 2010 and 2020, Iran's peak demand jumped by 20% in the current fiscal year (started March 21), said a deputy manager at Iran's Thermal Power Plants Holding Company, a subsidiary of the Energy Ministry.
“Last year's highest peak demand was about 45,000 megawatts between March and May, which has reached 54,000 MW in the current year, up 20%,” Nasser Eskandari was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news service.
“The rise in the number of household and industrial subscribers, low precipitation, lack of efficiency in Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, low investment in the power sector and legal and illegal crypto-mining have all put the electricity industry under unbearable pressure,” he said.
“Thermal power stations have raised their output by 20% or 13,000 MW since March to offset the shortage.”
Power production capacity in Iran is around 70,000 MW, of which 68,000 MW are generated by 129 thermal power plants.
According to the official, $7 billion have been invested in constructing new thermal power plants over the last eight years and completing the ongoing projects, TPPHC needs at least $14 billion.
“TPPHC produced 243 billion kilowatt hours of power in 2014, which rose to 315 billion kWh in 2020,” he added.
Giving a breakdown, Eskandari noted that of the total 129 thermal power stations, 70 are gas-fired power plants, 25 are steam-powered and the rest are combined-cycle power stations.
TPPHC has increased its production capacity by 17,000 WM over the last seven years.
Repair and Maintenance
ISNA quoted Esmaeil Namazi, director general of the Technical Office of TPPHC, as saying that more than 90% of the repair and maintenance of thermal power plants are complete.
Upgrading, repair and maintenance of thermal power plants added 620 MW to the total output.
“Overhaul starts every year in September and ends in April of the following year. This year, 583 gas and steam units in 129 power plants were supposed to be ready by May to help ensure sustainable supply during peak demand, but the routine overhaul has been impeded by the coronavirus outbreak and projects are not on schedule,” he said.
“In the last fiscal year (March 2020-21), 315 million megawatt hours of electricity were produced from thermal, hydroelectric, nuclear and renewable sources, of which about 92%, more than 314 million megawatt hours, were thermal [gas, steam and combined cycle].”
This year, thermal power plants will have to supply the major share of electricity because hydroelectric plants cannot operate fully due to water shortage in dams, and as renewable plants (solar and wind) still have a meager share of the national electricity production (less than 1,000 MW of the total 70,000 MW).
Low Rainfall
Due to low rainfall, 34% of the dams feeding hydropower plants are empty, as they suffer a deficit of 4,000 megawatts, Namazi said.
Iran registered 126 millimeters of rainfall (208 billion cubic meters of water) between Sept. 2020 and March 2021, down more than half compared to the same period of a year ago.
Dams can hold over 50 bcm of water and so far less than 50% are full. The huge deficit in precipitation has resulted in a steep decline in water stored in hydroelectric dams, especially in the capital that has nine hydropower plants with an installed capacity of 268 MW.
Tehran logged 132 mm of precipitation in March 2020, which fell to 2.3 mm in the current fiscal, which marks an unprecedented decline in 50 years.
The shortfall will pile pressure on thermal power and cause outages. About 60 hydroelectric plants in Iran have an annual output of 10,000 gigawatt hours when the dams are full.
With the rise in temperature before and during summer, power consumption increases.
On the main reason behind the increase in electricity consumption, the official said, “The highest consumption is from cooling devices and the share of split air-conditioners is comparatively much higher.”
In order to control consumption, offices and companies affiliated to the Energy Ministry are obliged to reduce power use by 50% compared to last year by reducing their use of cooling systems.
Namazi said households are recommended to refrain from using high energy-consuming appliances during peak hours, which is from 1 to 5 p.m., and set their air conditioners to 25 degrees centigrade.
As per the new Energy Ministry directive, the use of split air conditioners in offices and organizations in Tehran is banned to help ensure a stable power supply to homes, business outlets and medical centers.
