The stifling hot summer and recurring power outages in southern Khuzestan Province are creating discontent among residents forced to make do with 51 degrees Celsius, a lawmaker from the oil province said.
“Blackouts have nothing to do with electricity exports to Iraq, but the dilapidated infrastructure is a major cause for concern,” Qasem Saedi was quoted as saying by ICANA, the parliament's news service.
Echoing the views of most economists and social scientists, he said it does not make sense that the oil region which accounts for the lion’s share of power export to Iraq should suffer from chronic outages due to the ageing grid that is in dire need of renovation.
“People are frustrated,” he said, adding that developing, reinforcing and upgrading power transmission lines should top Khuzestan Regional Electricity Company’s agenda. Failing to do so means more complaints against the (state-run) company.
“If only a part of export revenue was invested in the region’s electricity infrastructure, the conditions would not be so critical now.”
In addition to the ageing network, dust storms and high temperature (51 degrees Celsius) make a bad situation worse, he recalled.
According to the official, life has become increasingly difficult as summers become hotter and power supply is often hindered.
Dust storms is a near permanent feature of the southern regions and from time to time, the severity of the phenomenon is so high that it locks people indoors and shuts offices while depriving the people enough power for their cooling systems.
Besides extensive outages, residents also suffer intermittent water supply cuts, he rued.
“It is strange that a province that was affected by severe floodwaters last winter should now suffer from water problems in summer.”
There is no justification for potable water shortage except for old water and wastewater pipelines through which the precious resource is wasted, especially due to seeping
Mobile Substations
In related news, the Energy Ministry news portal quoted managing director of the provincial Regional Power Company Mahmoud Dasht-Bozorg as saying that nine mobile substations were synchronized with the national grid in 2019 (in the province) to help reduce power cuts.
The substations added 270 megawatts to Khuzestan's installed capacity at 2,000 MW, but a lot more needs to be done.
Referring to other measures to reduce blackouts, he said 12 gas-insulated substations were installed in the top oil region last year.
"GIS systems cost twice as much as regular substations, but they play a key role in reducing power outages in regions vulnerable to intense dust storms," he said.
According to Energy Ministry data, an estimated $1 billon is invested in the power sector annually, but to meet growing demand in coming years this should double.
“Lack of investment will not only hamper economic growth but also hinder normal life in the rural and urban areas,” Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi the ministry’s spokesman for the power department warned.
Installed power capacity of 60 gigawatts is enough to meet current demand, but lack of investment is causing concern and it is likely that the key sector could face serious shortages in the near future, he noted.
There are 725 distribution transformers and 5,000 power transformers in the network that are in line for decommissioning.
The cost of installing new transformers has risen dramatically and the result is that old equipment is used well beyond shelf life, which again leads to new problems and reduces grid efficiency.
Iran supplies Iraq 1,500 MW of electricity per day via five transmission lines, which extend from power plants in Khuzestan Province.
Iran has exported close to 65 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to Iraq since 2004 worth $6.2 billion.
