Despite the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company’s efforts to fill the thermal power plants’ inventories, they are still 25% empty and power cuts loom in winter, the spokesman of state-run Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company said.
“Power stations are projected to need 230 million cubic meters of natural gas per day in winter, but they will be supplied with less than 50 mcm, so it will be inevitable to burn liquefied fuel,” Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi was also quoted as saying by Barq News.
Frequent power outages in the winter are very likely unless NIORDC, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, takes measures to keep all fuel depots full during the winter, he added.
Rajabi noted that as soon as natural gas supply to power plants is cut mainly due to the rise in home gas consumption, they will start burning diesel and mazut to generate power despite concerns about their adverse environmental impacts.
As households consume gas more judiciously, the less diesel and mazut will be burnt in power stations and air pollution can be avoided.
According to the spokesman, NIORDC’s failure to deliver fuel to power plants will definitely result in power cuts, so the company has already been advised to take measures to keep inventories full.
“An estimated 1 billion cubic meters of gas will be injected into the Iran Gas Trunkline [IGAT] per day in winter [Dec. 21, 2021-March 20, 2022] to meet the projected rise in winter demand. Of the total [1 bcm/d], 700 mcm/d are expected to be used in the household sector, up 30% compared to the present 500 mcm/d,” he added.
The weatherman has forecast a cold winter this year because of which gas delivery to power stations will be cut to 50 mcm/d (as last year) unless families rethink their high consumption patterns.
Referring to other sectors, Rajabi said petrochemical companies and industries will receive 110 mcm a day.
