The total peak electricity demand hours are predicted to reach 500 in the current fiscal year (started March 21) from 300 hours in the past, a deputy at Iran Grid Management Company said on Saturday.
“The national grid’s power load amounted to 55,443 megawatts in the last fiscal, which is expected to rise by 5% this year and reach over 58,000 MW,” Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
According to Rajabi, Iranians consumed 88.6% more power in the fiscal 2017-18 compared to the previous year, which was unprecedented in the last 10 years.
Iran’s power generation capacity stands at 80,000 MW.
Referring to the effect of cooling systems in increasing power load in the summer, the official noted that for each degree of air temperature increase, 1,500 MW of power consumption increases in the country.
“Fortunately, we have had a cooler weather so far compared with that of last year. But projections show that the main peak demands will emerge a month later,” he said.
Rajabi stressed that in the past fiscal, consumption management plans, such as operational storage and emergency discharge of power load, were implemented, in addition to the management of electricity use in the agriculture sector.
Deputy Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri also said that in the past two months, the country’s thermal power plants have increased production by 14% compared with the similar period of the last fiscal year.
“The thermal power plants are fully prepared for the hot season, as they have been overhauled. Iranian power plants have stored 7.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity since November," he said.
Haeri noted that with regard to predictions in the last fiscal, based on which rainfalls, and as a result hydropower plants’ production, were due to decline in the current water year (Sept. 23, 2017-Sept. 22, 2018), the ministry made up for the shortage by increasing power production in thermal and wind plants.
“We produced 9,300 MW of power from hydropower plants in the last fiscal year’s peak demand hours, which has been reduced to 6,000 MW as the precipitation rate has fallen sharply this year,” he said, adding that this means a power shortage of 3,300 MW, which should be compensated by prudent consumption.
According to reports, the current water year has been a rare one in terms of poor rainfall and the worst in 40 years. Many provinces, including Kerman, South Khorasan and Sistan-Baluchestan, are experiencing up to 70% decline in precipitation.
