Tehran, Iran, May 30
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran's electricity consumption is four times more than the world's average consumption rate.
Seyed Mohammad Hashemi, an official with the Great Tehran Electrical Distribution Company, said on May 30 that the country's consumption peak was around 45,000 megawatt hours in the previous summer, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported.
"The Great Tehran Electrical Distribution Company was in charge of distributing 4,000 megawatt hours of the mentioned figure," he said, mentioning that Iran is the world's 14th great electricity producer.
Iran's electricity generation capacity currently stands at 70,000 megawatt hours. The country's electricity consumption rises by 7 percent each year.
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.
"Iran produced 46,400 megawatt hours of electricity in the previous summer," he said, adding that the figure is expected to reach 200 billion kilowatt hours next summer.
"For generating the mentioned amount of electricity, some 67-70 billion liters of fuel is needed, which will make a total of $70 billion," he explained.
Falahatian said on February 10 that the production capacity of Iran's power plants does not meet domestic demands.
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.