Electricity consumption in Iran is not only above the global average, but has also surpassed that of regional rates, said a senior official at the Iran Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Management Company, or Tavanir.
"National electric power consumption is five times the amount in Turkey," Alireza Ahmad-Yazdi said without giving details, Moj News Agency reported.
Iran was the 18th largest consumer of electricity in the world in 2011 devouring 199.8 million megawatt-hours of electricity per year as indicated by a list of countries based on electricity consumption developed by the World Factbook, while China topped the list with a consumption rate of 5.4 billion kWh and Russia with 1,01 billion kWh.
A significant increase in overall population over the past decade has led to a surge in power consumption and prompted the UN-accredited global energy body, the World Energy Council, to address two important issues of population growth and global economic growth this year.
According to Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian, Iran's electricity is "the most inexpensive in the world" at a rate of approximately 1.4 cent per kWh, while power consumption in the country is roughly three times higher than the global average.
The official lamented the fact that more pollutants have entered the environment as a result of population hike and the amount is likely to rise in future.
Given the global call for economic growth, the demand for electricity, both in terms of production and consumption, will also escalate in the coming years.
According to Eurostat's energy balance sheets for 2015, every kilowatt-hour of electricity production and consumption generates about 922 grams of various environmental pollutants.
"As 85% of electricity are generated using fossil fuels, more amounts of such pollutants will find their way into the environment soon," he rued, urging the general public to make a collective effort to adopt a judicious consumption pattern.
