Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.2/ Trend G.Mehdi/
Iran has cut the supply of natural gas to 60 power plants nationwide as consumption by household and industrial subscribers has reached a peak on the verge of the cold season, the Mehr News Agency reported on Saturday.
According to the report, the power plants will be supplied with 94 million liters of diesel and furnace oil.
Gas consumption already hit 480 million cubic meters per day with 80 percent consumed by household and industrial sectors.
Currently, 67 power plants are connected to the natural gas network.
Iran's electricity output is around 65 gigawatts (GW). Some 220 million cubic meters of gas is needed per day to generate such amount of electricity.
Energy Minister Majid Namjou said the Energy Ministry plans to increase the electricity generation capacity by 5 GW this calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013.
Last year, Iran exported 8.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to its neighboring countries and the figure is projected to hit 10 billion kilowatt hours, he noted.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.