The consumption of liquid fuels in thermal power plants has decreased by 40% compared to a year ago, managing director of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company said.
“Although power stations are burning close to 80 million liters of mazut and diesel per day, consumption has declined by 50 ml/d compared to 2020 when it was 130 ml/d,” ISNA also quoted Mohsen Tarztalab as saying.
“In a move to curtail mazut supply to power stations in winter, the Energy Ministry has increased electricity imports from neighboring states, including Turkmenistan, as a result of which daily consumption of liquid fuel in power plants has plunged by 1.6 million liters.”
Giving a breakdown, Tarztalab noted that mazut and diesel account for 35 ml/d and 45 ml/d of the total consumption respectively.
According to the official, 70% of the thermal power plants' liquid fuel storage tanks are full and they will not face a shortage of feedstock during the cold season when there is not enough gas to feed power stations.
“Two years ago, about 1.9 billion liters of diesel were delivered to power plants. The figure increased last year and reached 2 billion liters. By the end of the current Iranian year [March 2021-22], 2.2 billion liters of the liquid fuel will have been delivered to the stations,” Tarztalab said.
Gas consumption in households and industries has risen, meaning power plants have to burn liquefied fuel to keep generating power.
Natural gas supply to power plants has been cut by half due to the rise in home gas consumption, and more mazut and diesel are used.
Power plants were supplied with about 200 million cubic meters of gas in summer, which has now dwindled below 100 mcm/d.
The Energy Ministry is collaborating with the Oil Ministry to fill the fuel storage tanks of power plants so that they can fully operate and generate electricity in winter.
Over 900 mcm of gas are injected into the Iran Gas Trunkline per day in winter to meet a projected rise in demand. Of the total, more than 700 mcm/d are used in the household sector.
According to the data provided by the National Iranian Gas Company, more than 67% of Iran's gas production are allocated to the domestic sector these days.
Average daily gas consumption during the second month of fall was around 536 million cubic meters, about 100 mcm higher than the same period of last year.
Iran burns record amounts of natural gas, which is much higher than the global average. While average global gas consumption has risen by 1.65% in three decades, demand for the fuel in Iran has shot up by 4.2% in the same period.
According to reports, of the 28 million gas subscribers in Iran, 25% consume gas excessively and heavy fines are set to be imposed on them from this month.
