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Water shortage reduces Iran’s hydroelectric power output to one third

Business Materials 7 July 2015 17:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 7

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Water shortage has reduced Iran's hydroelectric power output to one third, said Gholamreza Khoshkholq, deputy director of Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Management Company of Iran (TAVANIR) .

Due to water shortage in the country, just 5 percent to the total 15 percent of hydroelectric power generation capacity is used, Iran's Energy Ministry's website quoted Khoshkholq as saying on July 7.

Consumer price of electricity is very low in Iran, he said, adding that the national electricity industry is suffering huge losses in this regard.

The Islamic Republic is located in an arid zone and the country faces a serious water shortage crisis. However, many experts believe that the current water shortage problem is a result of water resources mismanagement, rather than the drought.

Iran's total annual water consumption is approximately 93 billion cubic meters, out of which about 92 percent is used in agriculture (86 billion cubic meters), 6.6 percent in municipality (6.18 billion cubic meters), and 1.2 percent in industry (1.12 billion cubic meters), according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Up to 70 percent of water used in the agriculture sector is being wasted, Iranian officials say.

Khoshkholq said on June 29 that Iran would boost its power generation capacity by 2,000 megawatts in the current Iranian fiscal year, which ends on March 20, 2016.

He added that combined cycle, gas-burning, and thermal power plants will increase their power generation capacity, which currently stands at around 73,000 MW.

Edited by CN

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