TEHRAN, Iran, Aug.10
Trend:
Iran needs to increase power production and manage consumption to prevent power cuts, member of the parliament's energy commission Hossein Hosseinzadeh told Trend in an interview.
"Considering the power consumption volume across the country, there is a shortage of power production; power cuts occur during summer and especially in the south of Iran," the MP said.
"The Ministry of Energy has invested in power production; minister Reza Ardakanian announced that a total of $6.5 billion has been invested in this sector, and the power production around 27,000 megawatt shall solve the country's issues in long term," Hosseinzadeh added.
"Power distribution and transfer is the second important issue in this sector; currently, some of the country's infrastructures and equipment are worn out and outdated for power distribution and transmission, and this is a serious problem," he said.
"Managing consumption model is another issue; unfortunately, power, gas and water consumption in the country is not up to standards. Addressing the issue and developing new attitude may take decades. The practice of high consumption in the society in general leads to higher power consumption and power cuts," the MP noted.
"In the current situation, officials at the Energy Ministry should design a plan on the costs of creating of infrastructures in power sector that will produce electricity faster and prevent any power shortage in the country," he said.
"Renewable energy sources including solar power plants is another option for to increase power production. It is predicted that in next 20 years, even nuclear power will be replaced by renewable energy and solar power plants," Hosseinzadeh concluded.