Iran, Tehran, Feb. April 7
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
If people reduce their electricity consumption by 10 percent, the country will not face any power outage in summer, Iran's Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said on April 7, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.
"By inauguration of new power plants, some 2,000 MW of electricity would be added to Iran's generation capacity," he said, adding that the plants will come on stream in 45 days.
He further encouraged Iranians to reduce their water and electricity consumption.
Iran's Deputy Energy Minister Housang Falahatian said on Feb. 17 that the country would be able to save $7 billion annually by reducing electricity consumption by 10 percent.
He noted that Iran produced 46,400 megawatt hours of electricity in previous summer, adding that the figure is expected to reach 200 billion kilowatt hours next summer.
Falahatian said in February that the production capacity of Iran's power plants does not meet domestic demands.
"The country's electricity generation capacity currently stands at 70,000 megawatt hours, but it's not enough," he said.
"Electricity consumption peak is currently around 46,300 megawatt hours, but if the current trend continues the figure would reach 50,000," Falahatian explained.
Managing Director of Iran's West Region Power Company Abdolaziz Karimi said on January 25 that Iran's electricity consumption will reach 51,000 megawatt hours in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).
"The figure is expected to reach 54,500 megawatt hours in the Iranian calendar year of 1394 (to start on March 21, 2015)," he said.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants.