The number of minutes during which each electricity subscriber experiences blackout in Tehran Province dropped to 160 in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2018) from 250 minutes in the previous year, the chief executive officer of Tehran Province Electricity Distribution Company said.
“The state-owned company plans to drag down the number of minutes to 130 by March 2019,” Hossein Sabouri was also quoted as saying by IRNA on Sunday.
Sabouri stressed that there is a maximum of 300 hours of peak electricity demand annually, which happen during summer between 7 p.m. and midnight as well as between midday and 4 p.m.
“If subscribers reduce their power consumption by 10% in the peak demand hours by using energy-intensive gadgets during hours with lower power load, we will have no blackouts in the coming summer,” he added.
Noting that the highest consumption in the last fiscal year was about 4,700 megawatts in Tehran, Sabouri said that due to an increase of 120,000 electricity subscribers in Tehran, the peak power load is predicted to reach 5,000 MW this year.
National electricity demand is forecast to exceed 57,000 MW next summer, as people turn on air-conditioners to alleviate simmering temperatures.
Iran's power demand hit a historic high of 55,400 MW in July, up from about 53,000 MW in the fiscal 2016-17.
According to the official, the company’s consumption management plans, which reduced 250 MW from the province’s peak power load in the last fiscal year, are further aimed at sustaining it at about 4,500 MW during peak demand hours.
“To prevent blackouts during peak demand hours, the capital’s whole power distribution network has been monitored and technical problems have been diagnosed,” he said, underscoring that to repair and upgrade the network, 300 billion rials ($7.1 million) have been allocated. Sabouri noted that the share of government and military bodies as well as municipalities in the province’s total power consumption is 25%, half of which is used to provide electricity for cooling systems.
“Only 20-30% of the organizations implemented the government’s directive in the last fiscal year, based on which they were ordered to reduce their power consumption by 10%,” he said.
"The organizations now owe 4 trillion rials ($95.2 million) to the Tehran Province Electricity Distribution Company, the payment of which can help solve the company’s financial problems."
According to Sabouri, there are 4.5 million power subscribers in the capital, which is 15% of all Iranian electricity subscribers.
“Tehrani consumers use 10% of Iran’s total power consumption, which equals 21 billion kilowatt-hours,” he said.
Stressing that the capital’s power network has a length of 32,000 kilometers, he said 20% of the network are dilapidated and over 30 years old.
