BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 14. Iran is looking to improve its revenues by saving domestic energy consumption, Trend reports.
Malek Shariati Niasar, a member and spokesman of the energy committee of the Iranian parliament said that by optimizing local energy consumption, Iran may sell it, thus earning about $100 billion a year.
He made the remark at the Iran Energy Efficiency Conference in Tehran on August 14.
According to him, even if energy consumption in the country is optimized by 25 percent in the first stage, it is considered a big step in terms of income.
In general, energy consumption should be optimized in many fields. The efficiency of the country's power plants should be increased, the consumption of energy carriers should be controlled, and smuggling should be prevented. Moreover, Iran considers the burning of flare gas as a waste of energy.
Shariati Niasar added that 18 billion cubic meters of gas in Iran are burned in flares per year. Its value is about $5 billion. However, Iran's annual gas export is worth about $17 billion. It means that gas flares' worth about one-third of Iran's gas annual exports.
The MP also said that the efficiency of the country's power plants is currently 39 percent, gas-fired thermal power plants - below 25 percent, 7 combined cycle power plants - 40 percent.
Shariati Niasar noted that Iran intends to become an energy hub in the region. However, if energy consumption is not optimized in the country, the possibility of becoming an energy hub will disappear.
He also pointed out that the low price of energy carriers in the country resulted in increase of smuggling. It is reported that at least 5 million liters of gasoline and 10 million liters of diesel are smuggled out of the country every day.
Iran's Ministry of Oil planned to produce 129 million liters of gasoline and 130 million liters of diesel daily by March 20, 2027.
It is possible to buy 60 liters of gasoline for 15,000 rials (about $0.35) and 150 liters for 30,000 rials (about $0.71) per month.
Currently, the daily consumption of gasoline in Iran is 110 million liters.
There are currently 616 power units operating in 134 TPPs in Iran. The power generation capacity of the country's thermal power plants is 74,198 megawatt-hours.
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