Baku, Azerbaijan, July 3
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The consumption of electrical power in Iran hit 56,672 megawatts at 16:38 local time, on July 2, which is a new high record in Iran’s electricity consumption history, according to the country's Ministry of Energy.
The peak was due to waves of heat that swept the country, and resulted in electricity cut in mega cities such as Tehran, Semnan, Isfahan, Karaj and Bandar Abbas between 14:00 to 17:00 local time yesterday.
The former high consumption record was registered on 30 July 2017, when the electricity usage surpassed 55,443 megawatts.
Iranian officials say that Tehran Province’s power demand increases by about 150-200 megawatts with the rise of each degree Celsius in temperature.
Gholamreza Khoshkholq, the managing director of Tehran Regional Electricity Company said that when Iran’s average temperature goes up by 1 degree Celsius, power consumption witnesses a rise of about 1,500 MW.
“As Iranian hydropower plants are not generating as much power as last year's corresponding period due to low precipitation, odds are that we will face problems in power supply in some regions,” he said.
In recent days, several cities in Iran including the capital Tehran have experienced rolling blackouts caused by a spike in demand for electricity in the summer heat and a shortage of water to keep power stations running.
Reportedly residents of Tehran, Kermanshah, Ardabil, and Isfahan have experienced several hours without electricity. Even elevators and traffic lights have stopped working.
Some provinces have announced a schedule for hours of electricity. Isfahan has published a schedule in which various districts will be without electricity for two hours every day.
Iranians officials have requested citizens to reduce their electricity consumption by 10 percent to prevent shortage.
Currently, the nominal power generation capacity of Iran stands at 78,736 MW. Iran plans to add 3,603 megawatts (MW) to its electric generation capacity by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2019).
During the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 20 to June 22) Iran's power plants generated over 80,687 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity.