Electricity consumption peaked to 47,400 megawatts on Saturday – up 8% compared to the corresponding period a year ago, planning and economic affairs deputy manager at the state-affiliated Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (Tavanir) said Sunday.
"Tavanir's maximum generation capacity is 59 GW and network load is projected to surpass 61 GW this summer," Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
The 3,000 MW deficit will have to be compensated by load shedding and power outages that will affect industrial units and household sectors unless consumption slows between early July to September.
Current installed power capacity is 81,000 megawatts. However, a lot less is produced especially in the hot seasons due to wastage and technical problems and restrictions as power plants are usually not allowed to operate at full capacity.
"Close to 90% of consumers are in the average 300-kilowatt hour bracket a month, which is a basic consumption benchmark for subscribers in regions with temperate climate," he added.
"Depending on geographical proximity of provinces the base model is modified," he noted, adding that those who live in arid and desert regions like Khuzestan, Hormozgan and Bushehr provinces are heavy consumers if their monthly consumption exceeds 3,000 kilowatt hours.
The figure is 2,000 kilowatt hours per month in Kerman, Shiraz and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces.
As per rules announced in May, electricity tariffs will increase by 23% for consumers who do not comply with the base patterns from June to September, when temperature and power consumption rises phenomenally.
The new regulations target the remaining 20% heavy consumers who apparently are not interested in rethinking their high consumption patterns on the weird argument that they are willing and able to pay more for what they consume.
Not Feasible
To meet the rising power demand during peak hours in summer Tavanir should add 2,500 MW to its annual output, Mashhadi said. “This is not economically viable because power consumption decreases by almost 50% as soon as the hot season is over and most power plants are shut down.
Constructing a 1,000 MW power plant costs between $400 and $500 million and common sense demands that the same amount be spent on encouraging consumers to reduce consumption for three months.
Power generation costs, including production and transmission, is 2 cents per kilowatt-hour while electricity is sold at 0.7 cents per kWh now.
According to Paven, the Energy Ministry news portal, the number of electricity meters nationwide has surpassed 35.5 million and 3.5 million new consumers joined the national grid from 2015.
Household, agriculture, and industrial sectors account for 28.5 million, 436,000 and 242,000 consumers respectively. The rest are public and commercial companies.
