By Dalga Khatinoglu
Iran's power sector consumes about 400 million barrels of oil equivalent per year, sharing one fourth of total primary energy usage in the country.
The latest weekly statistics, released on Energy Ministry's official website which covers statistics of 10.5 months of current fiscal year, started on March 21, indicate huge changes in the power sector, but not fundamentally.
According to the report, Iran consumed about 43.47 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas as well as 16.627 billion liters of liquid fuels for electricity generation during a 10.5-month period to produce 56,850 Megawatt power.
|
Power sector |
Current year (10.5 months) |
Y/Y change |
Last year (12 months) |
Two year ago (12 months) |
|
Gas consumption (bcm) |
43.47 |
34.4% |
36 |
38.1 |
|
Diesel consumption (billion liters) |
7.627 |
-24.5% |
12.1 |
7.67 |
|
Fuel oil consumption (billion liters) |
9 |
-33.5% |
15.2 |
14.46 |
|
Actual power generation (GW) |
56.856 |
54.879 |
54.879 |
54.043 |
The statistics indicate that Iran increased gas supplement to power thermal power plants, which shares above 82 percent of the country's total power generation "capacity" during last 10.5 months.
On the other hand, the power output increased about 2,000 MW during this period.
The country's total "power generation capacity" is about 72, 796 MW, which indicates a 2,518 MW increase year-to-year.
In regards to increasing the actual and nominal power generation capacity, it seems the efficiency of Iran's power plants hasn't become better during the couple of last years.
Hamid Chitchian, Iran's Energy Minister told Shana on March 4 that some 120 trillion rials ($4.8 billion based on official USD rate in Iran on March 4) has been allocated based on pay-back contracts during current fiscal year's budget law to increase the efficiency of thermal power plants (TPP).
He went on to say that the TPPs' efficiency is aimed to increase from its current 37.5 percent to 50 percent.
Iran has aimed to change all of gas thermal power plants into combined cycle power plants (CCPP). The efficiency of gas thermal power plants (excluding (CCPP) in Iran is about 31 percent while CCPPs is 45 percent.
The new statistics indicate that Iran's power generated from CCPPs increased by 644 MW during the last 10.5 months, which shares about 25 percent in total power generation capacity increase.
On the other hand, the country's power export decreased 14 percent to 8.657 GW, while imports increased by 2 percent to 3.336 GW in this period.
There is also a huge power loss during the transmission and distribution process, which reaches around 40 billion Kwh, or more than 14 percent of total actual power generation capacity. Iran hasn't been able to optimize the situation.
Edited by CN
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran's energy sector, head of Trend Agency's Iran news service.
Follow him on @dalgakhatinoglu