apparently the electric power industry is vitally important in economy of nations. It is an infrastructural and key industry for every country and economic development without this energy is nearly impossible. Just like other industries, its situation was melancholy in 2018. The 7000 MW deficit during  peak consumption times, incapacity of the Ministry of Energy to pay for demands of private sector plants, and decreased efficiency of plants due to their weariness were only a part of problems of the electric power industry during 2018. In order to investigate the problems encountering the electric power industry, evaluate the capacity of private sector in this industry, and predict the challenges plants face during peak demands throughout the country, we had a conversation with the manager and member of the board of directors of Saina Gostar Pardisan. What comes next is our dialogue with Mohammad Bayat:

 How do you find the position of the private sector in the electric power industry and peak demands in 2018?

as you know, currently the private sector provides 60% of the electricity consumption throughout the country. In 2018, despite all difficulties encountering the power industry, all Iranian plants did their utmost to compensate for the power deficit.Although there were some short blackouts in some areas of the country, they were not serious enough to challenge either the economy or the society. However it is worth mentioning that several plants were not able to serve the power industry at their best because they had financial problems and the Ministry of Energy did not manage to pay for their demands. These problems led to a 7000 MW deficit during the peak demand (summer) in 2018.

 Taking these issues into account, how do you find the capacity of the private sector plants in the electric power industry during the coming year (2019)? Is it possible that the electric power industry encounters challenges during the next year too?

thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) and its managing director, Mohsen Tarztalab, made every attempt to obtain some of the plants’ receivables form the Ministry of Energy so that plants can prepare themselves for 2019 at least by repairs and overhauls.The plant has not received any money yet. However since some plant parts and equipment have to be imported, we hope that the plants are provided with the necessary credits as soon as possible.Answering the second part of your question, I have to say “yes”.If the Ministry of Energy fails to pay for plants’ receivables and plants are not equipped and repaired in time, the electric power industry will struggle with power deficit during the coming year. Regarding the current situation, we foresee that in comparison to 2018, the electric power industry would have more problems in 2019.

 As a journalist, when discussing with activists in the electric power industry I quite often come across the subject of plants’ receivables from the Ministry of Energy. As an activist in the electric power industry do you have a solution for this problem?

indubitably, plants’ demands from the Ministry of Energy has been one of the most serious and fundamental problems of the electric power industry during the recent years. I believe that if this is resolved, many challenges of the electric power industry, such as refusing to invest in this industry, will also be resolved. As an example, the Ministry of Energy owes nearly 1200 billion Tomans to 1000MW-Neishabour Plant, which is owned by Saina Gostar Company. Therefore it is totally normal that such a complex can hardly stand on its feet let alone thinking about development.Perhaps increasing energy sales rate is the first and most crucial step which should be taken by the Ministry of Energy to resolve financial problems of plants.Unfortunately, despite that the explicit letter of the law necessitates the annual increase of energy rate in country, the Ministry of Energy has ignored it and kept the energy sales rate constant.In my estimation, launching energy stock exchange paves the way to increase or realize electricity price throughout the country. At present the electricity buyer in energy stock market is a legal entity (the Ministry of Energy). The other problem of the electric power industry is variations in rules of the electricity market. Regrettably, by its discriminative comments electricity regulatory board in recent years has been working for the Ministry of Energy which resulted in electricity producers’ bankruptcy. Therefore there must be a second impartial regulator (market regulator) and this should be taken into account. However considering the correspondences we have made, we hope that we would have launched electricity market regulatory organization in 2019.

 Perhaps it doesn’t make sense to ask you why although the law emphasizes to privatize the electric power industry up to 80%, this has not been realized yet and only 60% of this industry is in the hands of the private sector?

rumors are going around that the government has to step forward to have new investments in plants domain, if it was true I would have to say that we are turning back to our past. If the state has financial resources to start new investments in power industry, why they won’t balance the receivables? It seems that some people in government do not agree with the electric power industry privatization and this can almost knock down this industry.

The government must regard the private sector as its helping arm not its rival. Assisting to launch the electricity regulatory market as soon as possible and stabilizing the regulations of energy sales can be a good starting point in order to prove the government’s ideas to privatize the electric power industry.