Close to $120 million has been invested to expand the national power grid in small towns and villages since 2013.
According to Paven, the Energy Ministry's news portal, the money was spent to install power towers, build substations including transmission and distribution and extend high voltage power transmission lines and aerial transmission cables.
All rural dwellings with over 20 households (31,000 households) are now connected to the national network.
Plans are underway to connect small rural areas with more than 10 households a piece to the grid and so far 57,000 have access to stable electricity.
Moreover, 4,850 nomadic households in remote areas have access to renewable energy, namely solar and wind power.
Referring to rehabilitation of Tehran's power infrastructure, the news agency quoted Reza Teimouri, managing director of Tehran Regional Electricity Company, as saying that the capital's aerial and ground transmission cables have been extended by 534 kilometers in the past two years.
TREC has also replaced 100 km of old power cables since 2018, he said.
Tehran electricity network has not had a major overhaul in the past 30 years, which has become a source of concern regarding the possible consequences such as high rate of wastage.
Unpaid Bills
Highlighting TREC's financial constraints and unpaid bills of consumers, he said subscribers in households, industrial, agriculture/commercial sectors plus state organizations owe $25 million to the company.
Industries and farmers are in the red to the tune of $3 million and $8 million respectively. Households and government-affiliated companies' debts amount to $5 million and $4 million. The rest of the total debt belongs to the commercial sector.
"The number of electricity meters in Tehran has reached 2.3 million, of which 78% are households accounting for 30% of energy consumption," he said, noting that although industries comprise only 1.5% of subscribes, their energy consumption is as high as 35%.
Farmers make up 0.5% of consumers and the rest of the power is used in other sectors like commercial units.
Teimouri added that power wastage in the national grid has been cut to 14.8% from 15.2% in the past two years and would be cut to less than 10% in the near future.
Reducing electricity wastage in the national power grid and promoting prudent consumption can help tackle the country's occasional power shortage, he added.
Regarding the systemic increase in demand for electricity in the capital, he said TREC covers Tehran, Qom and Alborz provinces with at least 8 million subscribers or 20% of total subscribers in the country.
Tehran Province has a population of 12 million.
"Peak hour demand in Tehran stood at 10,182 megawatts last summer and is expected to increase by 700 MW this year."
Iran's total installed power generation capacity is 81 GW.
