As reported, in a meeting on July 7, the cabinet made some decisions based on the Energy Ministry proposals for reducing the duration of systematic power outages in urban areas and for managing the country’s current electricity situation, the result of which was announced in the form of the mentioned resolution.

Accordingly, all government organizations, banks, and other public institutions will be closed on Thursdays in Tehran and throughout the country until the end of the Iranian calendar month of Mordad (August 22) in accordance with Article (87) of the Civil Service Management Law.

Also, to maintain the stability of the country’s electricity network, the instructions provided by the National Dispatching Center (Iran Electricity Network Management Company) should be followed by all power distribution departments across the country and also by large-scale subscribers.

Furthermore, in order to reduce the country’s electricity consumption by 4,000 megawatts, all industries are obliged to reduce their consumption by at least 10 percent by overhauling their equipment or closing for summer vacations within two weeks. In case of non-compliance, the electricity companies are allowed to cut off the subscribers’ electricity immediately.

A working group comprised of the ministries of Energy, Industry, Mining and Trade, Finance, and Economic Affairs will also be formed to allocate incentives such as tax deferral, and long-term tax installments to units complying with this resolution.

The cabinet has also allowed the Energy Ministry to prioritize, limit, or, if necessary, cut off the electricity of the high-consuming subscribers in order to balance the supply and demand of electricity in the country (until the end of the summer peak consumption period).

Over the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

This year, however, new deteriorating factors like severe drought and the decline in the country’s water resources as well as a new wave of illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country have also worsened the situation.

Iranians are currently left in the dark for several hours each day based on a pre-planned outage program implemented by the Energy Ministry.

Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) has previously announced that the company is implementing over 40 different programs for managing the situation and to prevent blackouts in the country, however, so far these programs do not seem to be working as expected.

The post Cabinet approves new directives for managing electricity outages appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Considering the country’s special conditions this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and the risks that the electricity outages could impose on Covid-19 patients, the Energy Ministry is facing a much bigger challenge compared to the previous years.

Furthermore, new deteriorating factors like severe drought and the decline in the country’s water resources as well as a new wave of illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country have also worsened the situation this year.

Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) has previously announced that the company is implementing over 40 different programs for managing the situation and to prevent blackouts in the country, however, so far these programs do not seem to be working as expected.

In this regard, the Tehran Times has spoken with the Head of Tavanir Office of Public Relations Abouzar Salehi to get more information on the matter. What follows is the gist of the interview.

The consumption

Asked about the country’s electricity consumption situation in the current year and the difference with the previous years, Salehi said” This year we are facing two major phenomena in this regard, one is natural and the other manmade: lack of rainfall and severe drought has pushed the water reservoirs of the country’s hydropower plants to critical lows and at the same time illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country has imposed a huge burden on the power grid this year.”

“Last year, the inflow of water into the country’s dam reserves was about 12 billion cubic meters, while this year the figure has fallen to six billion, this means that our water resources have been halved,” he said.

“Water shortage this year has led to a 4000-5000 megawatt decline in the output of hydropower plants which is equal to the total consumption of six big cities.”

On the other hand, the consumption has also increased drastically, so that in comparison to the previous year electricity consumption has risen by 19.2 percent this year.

“On May 22, 2020, electricity consumption in Iran stood at 45,847 megawatts, while this year the consumption has increased to 54,448 megawatts, this means 8,600 megawatts more electricity is consumed compared to the same date in the previous year.”

The increase in the electricity consumption in the current summer peak period is equal to the output of 70 gas power plant units, Salehi stressed.

The reasons

Asked about the reasons for the drastic increase in consumption, Salehi pointed to three major reasons: “cryptocurrency mining, rise in temperature, and industrial boom.”

According to the official, one of the major reasons for the current year’s power shortage is the activity of thousands of illegal cryptocurrency mining units across the country.

“Based on a research conducted by Cambridge University, the electricity consumption by crypto-miners in Iran has increased 4.5 times since October 2020,” he noted.

“We estimate the electricity consumption by such units to be at least 2,000 megawatts at the moment,” Salehi added.

“Also, the drought has led to the decline of the water levels in agricultural wells so the pumps need to work more hours and consequently consume more electricity; at the same time the early arrival of the heat has also caused a sudden jump in the use of cooling appliances in households and once again led to a drastic rise in consumption, especially in arid regions.”

The industrial sector in the country has also been demanding more electricity in the current year following the boom in the country’s domestic production, he added.

The Solutions

Explaining the Energy Ministry’s programs for tackling the above-mentioned challenges, Salehi said the ministry and Tavanir have prepared several programs to address the mentioned issues in the best possible way.

For instance, the agricultural sector has been asked not to use their water pumps in the peak consumption hours and in return use free electricity in certain hours, he said.

“Also, the industrial units that stop working in rush hours will be awarded a 50-percent discount on their electricity bills in other hours.”

“People have also been asked to manage their consumption and several incentive packages have also been considered to encourage people to consume less during peak hours.”

As for the crypto-miners, the energy ministry has asked people to report any illegal activities of such units and in return receive a prize amounting to 200 million rials (about $4,700), the official added.

Several power plant units which have been going through an annual overhaul will also be put into operation in the coming days and hopefully, the situation will get better, Salehi noted.

Salehi finally stressed the fact that all of the above programs will work only if people cooperate with the ministry since the masses have the biggest impact on the country’s power situation.

The post Crypto-miners, drought leaving Iranians in the dark appeared first on Iran News Daily.

On Monday, Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh, the managing director of Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir), warned, “This year, we will have a difficult peak period”, and called for the people’s cooperation so that this period can be passed without outages.

Mentioning three major factors creating some severe condition in terms of power supply in this year, the official last week explained, “This year, we are facing three issues. First, there was a very severe drought during which we saw a reduction in the water supply of the country’s hydropower plants to less than half. In this way, we lose the generation of about 4,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from hydropower sources.”

On the other hand, due to the intense premature heat, the cooling equipment entered the consumption circuit earlier than usual, he mentioned.

“And a new problem we are facing this year is the power consumption of illegal cryptocurrency mining units”, Motevalizadeh added.

Although every year nearly 3,000 MW is added to the country’s power generation capacity, the reduction in the rainfalls and the decline in the water storage behind the dams has reduced the electricity generation offsetting the added capacity.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage the consumption and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

In late July 2020, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said that his ministry was considering new incentive packages for low-consuming households and industrial electricity subscribers.

He also said that two programs were prepared for high-consuming subscribers so that by implementing these plans, these subscribers would also join the low-consumer group.

The official described the first program as a training course to teach consumption management methods with the help of knowledge-based companies and start-ups, and said: “Start-up companies will be formed in this field and will help us optimize the consumption of high-consuming subscribers by providing simple solutions.”

The second plan was to install solar panels on the roofs of high-consuming subscribers’ houses so that such subscribers would meet their electricity needs by installing these PV stations.

Meanwhile, the managing director of Tavanir has recently announced that his company has defined 40 programs for maintaining electricity supply and preventing power outages during the hot season peak consumption period.

Motevalizadeh underlined early increase in the temperature and water shortage for hydropower plants as the most important challenges this year, saying: “These issues have forced the early implementation of preventive programs and in this regard, 40 programs have been prepared by Tavanir, and will be implemented across the country.”

Based on the mentioned programs, the responsibilities of various ministries and specialized parent companies have been determined and assigned, the official said.

He noted that the ceiling for incentive packages allocated to each province has also been determined and the governorates of the provinces have been notified in this regard.

“Government organizations and entities are the first priority for implementing consumption management programs, and in this regard monitoring and optimization of air conditioning and lighting systems in such offices should be seriously pursued”, he stressed.

The post Programs underway to prevent power outage in peak consumption period appeared first on Iran News Daily.