The number of electricity meters nationwide has soared by 700,000 over the past eight months to surpass 38 million, a spokesperson for the Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said.
"The total number of consumers in four sectors [households, industries, agriculture and commerce] was 37,600 million in 2020, which has now experienced a 2% rise to reach 38,300 million," Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Giving a breakdown, he said household subscribers witnessed the biggest increase (475,000 new meters) and reached 30.4 million, up 7% compared to 2020 when the figure stood at 30.2 million.
There were about 480,000 electricity meters in the agro sector last year, which has now risen by 3%, meaning 14,000 new subscribers have been added to the key sector.
The number of consumers in the commercial sector has experienced a rise of 4%. In other words, 202,000 new users have been added, increasing the number of subscribers in the commercial sector to 5.1 million.
Industrial consumers have increased from 1.7 million to 1.9 million.
“The newly-added subscribers will add 2,000 kilowatts to the national grid load,” he added.
According to Rajabi-Mashhadi, the number of electricity meters nationwide in household, agricultural and industrial sectors has grown 12-fold in four decades.
“There were three million electricity consumers in 1980, which figure is currently 38 million,” he added.
Consumption Level
The spokesman noted that to curtail electricity consumption and ease power demand, Tavanir will charge subscribers based on their consumption level as per the new scheme that will take effect on Jan. 20.
“Under the new pricing scheme, subscribers who consume less than 300 kilowatts-hour per month pay much less than the bill paid by those using more than 600 kWh per month,” he said.
“Power is now sold at 1,000 rials [0.5 cents] per kWh to those whose consumption is maximum 300 kilowatts per month and those using 300 kWh to 600 kWh are levied 16% more than the previous category [0.58 cents per kWh]. And consumers that use more than 600 kWh per month are currently charged 8,000 rials [4 cents] per kWh.”
“As per the new plan, those who consume up to 300 kWh per month will be charged as much as before. Nonetheless, if consumption stands between 300 kWh and 450 kWh, subscribers will be charged 6,000 rials [3 cents] per kWh. Subscribers whose consumption level stands between 450 kWh and 600 kWh are expected to be levied 5 cents per kWh. If consumption exceeds 600 kWh, consumers will have to pay 7 cents per kWh.”
Having different consumption categories and a progressive increase in tariffs spurs consumers to moderate their usage and cut down on their power bills.
All industrial units that consume more than 2 megawatts of electricity per month will be charged 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour as of the next fiscal year (starting March 2022).
“Industries are levied 0.5 cent per kilowatt-hour currently and the 400% rise is expected to help the cash-strapped Energy Ministry meet its financial requirements,” he said.
As per the new bill passed by the Majlis, electricity tariffs for energy-intensive industries, namely cement factories, oil refineries and petrochemical and steel companies, will increase fivefold as of March 2022.
Industries account for 40% of Iran’s annual power consumption of 280 billion kilowatts-hour.
“The move [tariff hike] will add at least $400 million to the ministry’s annual revenues. The ministry has been obliged to use its revenue not only to settle a part of its massive debt to private companies but also rehabilitate aging infrastructure and expand water supply to rural areas,” the official said.
Transmission, Distribution Infrastructure
The national electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure is expanding, as output and demand have reached 60 gigawatts and 57 GW, respectively.
Referring to data released by Tavanir, Rajabi-Mashhadi said transmission lines that supply from the main power stations to substations in and around cities now stretch over 815,000 kilometers, of which 15,000 km were laid last year. The total length of transmission lines was 68,000 km in 1980.
Distribution lines, which carry electricity from substations to homes, industries and other end-users, extended by 1,000 kilometers in 2019 to reach 130,000 km.
“Installed capacity of substations, including transmission and distribution, has reached 122,000 megavolt ampere (MVA), up 16% compared to 2016 when it was 105,000 MVA,” he added.
According to the spokesman, the transmission capacity of substations, both step-up and step-down stations, increased by 8,000 MVA last year, whereas distribution increased by 7,000 MVA.
Energy Ministry data show that $120 million have been spent to expand rural power infrastructure since 2013 largely for installing towers, building substations for transmission and distribution, expanding high voltage transmission lines and aerial transmission cables.
Close to 309 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were produced in 2019, up 6.1% compared to the previous year.
Based on data from the Statistical Center of Iran, 2.9 billion kilowatt hours were exported to Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, up 4.7% compared to 2018.
