Power wastage in the national electricity grid declined from 15.2% to 11.1% between 2013 and 2018. Nonetheless, Iran is still among countries in which massive amounts of power is wasted.
If the wastage was not cut [at least by 4%], the government would be forced to build new power stations to produce at least 2,500 megawatts costing $1.7 billion. To generate 2,500 MW close to 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas is needed.
"Iran ranks seventh in terms of power wastage in the world," ISNA said.
Iraq (50.6%), India (19.4), Pakistan (17.4%), Brazil (15.8), Turkey (14.8), Mexico (13.7%) are the top six.
The news agency said $400 million is required to cut electricity wastage to less than 10%, in which case the country will have the same ranking as Portugal and Spain.
Electricity is usually supplied from large power plants to consumers via extensive networks and rugged terrain. Transmission over long distances creates power losses.
Replacing old and defective equipment, power lines, utility posts, cables and meters as well as penalizing illegal use (theft) of electricity are among measures which need to be taken by energy organizations to reduce electricity loss.
The Energy Ministry has said it has plans to reduce electricity wastage to 9% by 2022.
Power wastage in China, the US, France, Italy, England, South Africa and Canada is as low as 5.5%, 5.9%, 6.4%, 6.7%, 8.3%, 8.4% and 8.9% respectively.
Energy experts, including Arash Kordi, a former managing director of Tavanir, claim “Iran has a vast power infrastructure and its wastage understandably exceeds the global average.” This claim, however, is disputed by independent experts and observers.
Slow Improvement
"More than 10% of electricity goes to waste in the national grid due to defective equipment. Moreover, infrastructure of the national grid is of poor quality," he said, adding that raising power plants’efficiency will help save energy.
According ISNA, efficiency of thermal power plants increased by 1% in the last five years, reaching 38.1%. The improvement has reduced fossil fuel consumption by 2.5% for generating one kilowatt of power.
Furthermore, thanks to the rise in efficiency, emission of greenhouse gases, namely CO2, has declined from 645 grams to 593 grams for producing one kilowatt of electricity.
To save natural resources in power stations and fight the seemingly unending battle against air pollution, plans are underway to boost thermal power plants' efficiency from 37% to 40% by the end of 2022, Mohsen Tarztalab, the head of Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company told the news agency.
