According to Tavanir’s Operator for Rural Electricity Expansion Program Ali Chehel-Amirani, there are currently 100,000 agricultural wells in the country that use diesel fuel to pump water and construction of these renewable power plants will save huge amounts of fuel in addition to supporting the power grid.

The water pumps in each agricultural well consumes an average of 11,000 liters of fuel per year, and connecting these wells to renewable energy sources can be effective in preserving the environment, helping the electricity grid, preventing fuel smuggling, and boosting renewable energy-related industries, Chehel-Amirani said.

The official noted that the power plants will be constructed by the private sector and will be paid for by the resources coming from fuel savings in accordance with the article 12 of the law on the elimination of barriers to production.

Following the increase in the electricity consumption by the agricultural sector in the current years due to the water shortage and drought, Tavanir and IFCC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on June 13 to collaborate for installing PV stations for the agricultural wells.

Based on the mentioned MOU, which was signed by Tavanir Head Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh and head of IFCC Ali Mobini Dehkordi, farmers are not going to pay any price for the mentioned stations and all the costs are covered by the mentioned entities.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MOU, Dehkordi noted that under the framework of this memorandum, PV stations will be installed for 60,000 agricultural wells over a three-year period.

“In the first phase of this program, 11,000 wells are scheduled to be provided with renewable energy sources,” the official said.

Following the signing of the mentioned MOU, Tavanir issued a call for identifying contractors interested in supplying equipment and installing and operating solar power plants in rural areas across the country with a total capacity of 3,000 MW.

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 power consumption in various sectors and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

The post Tavanir to establish 3GW of renewable power plants for agricultural wells appeared first on Iran News Daily.

As reported, following the increase in the electricity consumption by the agricultural sector in the current years due to the water shortage and drought, Tavanir and IFCC have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate for installing PV stations for the agricultural wells.

Based on the mentioned MOU, which was signed by Tavanir Head Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh and head of IFCC Ali Mobini Dehkordi, farmers are not going to pay any price for the mentioned stations and all the costs are covered by the mentioned entities.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MOU, Dehkordi noted that under the framework of this memorandum, PV stations will be installed for 60,000 agricultural wells over a three-year period.

“In the first phase of this program, 11,000 wells are scheduled to be provided with renewable energy sources,” the officials said.

“In winter, when agricultural wells are not in use, solar electricity is injected into the national grid and will be supplied to other consumers,” the official stated.

According to the official, based on the said memorandum $1.6 billion is going to be allocated for providing electricity to agricultural wells with the aim of reducing fossil fuel consumption in the agricultural sector.

Underlining the environmental impacts of the mentioned program, Dehkordi said: “Implementing this plan will make the environment cleaner and create a value chain. At the same time, it will also lead to more employment and economic prosperity.”

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 power consumption in various sectors and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

The post Tavanir to install solar PV stations for agricultural wells appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Making the remarks in a meeting of the Energy Committee of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) on Monday, Mohsen Tarztalab stated that the 35-percent decrease in the amount of rainfall has severely limited the output of hydropower plants, and said: “We are trying to complete the repairs of the thermal power plants by the end of this week to add 3,500 MG of new generation capacity.”

Saying that there will be about 10,000 MW shortage of electricity generation in this year’s summer peak consumption period, the official explained, “Last year, due to problems related to gas supply to power plants, we were not able to start repairs of thermal power generation units on time, and inevitably the steam units using liquid fuel were kept in production cycle.”

Last month, Tarztalab had announced that 69,000 megawatts (MW) new capacity of thermal power plants will enter the network by mid-June and after the end of the overhaul operations.

“The overhaul operations of the power plants are now underway and efforts are being made to complete this before the peak load”, he stated.

As announced by the official, the efficiency of Iran’s thermal power plants will reach 40 percent by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2022).

Tarztalab also said that the conversion of gas-fired power plants to combined cycle ones, applying gas turbines with new technology, upgrading the gas units and scrapping the worn-out power plants are some of the programs to increase efficiency in thermal power plants.

Referring to the announcement of the new energy document to the electricity industry, he said: “According to this document, by Iranian calendar year 1420 (started in March 2041) the efficiency of the country’s thermal power plants should reach 50% percent, which will require heavy investments.”

On April 16, the official had announced that the efficiency of Iran’s thermal power plants has reached a new record high of 39 percent for the first time in the history of the country’s electricity industry.

“The efficiency of the country’s thermal power plants improved by over 0.4 percent from the 38.56 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) to reach 39 percent,” Tarztalab announced.

According to Tarztalab, the mentioned improvement has decreased the fuel consumption of the country’s power plants by 846 million cubic meters in the mentioned year.

The TPPH head emphasized that the 0.4-percent increase in the efficiency of power plants has resulted in more than one percent increase in annual fuel saving.

“Annual fuel savings add value and preserve national capital, so measures to increase the power plants efficiency are among the most important goals of the company,” he stressed.

Tarztalab underlined the implementation of the annual overhaul program at the country’s power plants as one of the determining factors in achieving the mentioned efficiency ratio and added: “Technical issues and problems that occur during operation can affect the power plants’ efficiency; such issues are resolved during the implementation of the annual overhaul program to prevent the decline in the power plants’ efficiency”, he stated.

The official also stressed the significant impact of installing steam units in the country’s gas power plants on improving their efficiency and said: “The efficiency of large gas power plants is 31 percent on average; this figure can be increased to more than 45 percent by turning them into combined cycle plants.”

In this regard, last year, a total of 1,936 megawatts (MW) capacity of combined cycle power plants joined the country’s national electricity network, he added.

The post Thermal power plants’ output to increase 3,500 MW 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.

According to Hassan Sabouri, over seven million electricity subscribers are connected to the Tehran Electricity network, comprising 20 percent of the country’s total power consumers.

The official noted that 9,000 government entities are also based in the capital Tehran, accounting for 17 percent of the city’s total electricity consumption.

Sabouri said electricity consumption in Tehran in recent weeks has increased by 18.5 percent compared to the previous year’s same period, adding that each degree of temperature rise would boost the city’s electricity consumption by 100 MW.

According to Sabouri, a group of 2,500 supervisors has been tasked to monitor the electricity consumption in government entities during the peak consumption period in order to report any misuse back to the governor to be pursued.

He further stated that the Energy Ministry paid 300 billion rials (about $7.14 million) to the capital city’s industrial units as a reward for their electricity consumption management during the summer’s peak consumption period.

This year too, the ministry has allocated the same amount for those industrial units whose consumption is within the range that Tavanir has determined, he 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, he regretted.

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.

The post Tehranis must save 1,540MW of electricity in summer to prevent blackouts appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Iran’s Energy Minister, Reza Ardekanian, and Majid Mahdi Hantoush attended a press conference after their meeting and elaborated on Iran and Iraq’s cooperation in supplying energy.

“Iran has always supported Iraq in supplying fuel for Iraq’s power plans whenever needed,” Hantoush noted.

The Iraqi minister went on to say that Iran and Iraq’s relations are expanding and continuous, adding that negotiations over Iraq’s debt to Iran have taken place.

“Iraq has to import energy since the country’s need is three times more than our capacity. This year we supplied 22000 MV electricity, reaching 28000 MV in special hours,” he highlighted.

“Due to climatic conditions in Iraq, Iraqis use electricity six times more than Iranian,” Hantoush referred.

“Negotiations and bilateral meetings between Iraq and Iran continue until we discuss all existing problems and finding solutions, especially about Iraq’s debts to Iran,” he concluded.

Iran’s energy minister also speaking in this joint press conference said that Iran helps Iraq reduce its electricity waste from 50% to 20%, meaning that 30% will be added to Iraq’s energy source.

Ardekanian said that the two countries had reached a framework to continue cooperation.

“Although Iran has a 50% decrease in the rain this year, it has been fully planned to supply water, electricity, and import to neighboring countries,” Ardakanian added.

“After the Islamic revolution, Iran’s energy capacity has increased from 7000 MV to 85000 MV. In comparison, our maximum contract with Iraq is 1300 MV, and the final price must be paid in Euro to Tavanir Company,” highlighted the minister.

Ardakanian states that Iran-Iraq Common Economic Commission has resumed its activity since last Iranian year (starting on March 21) and had expanded its relations with Oil and Energy ministries.

Referring to the coronavirus pandemic, Iran’s energy minister noted that negotiations took place with Iraq’s Trade Bank to supply needed currency to import coronavirus vaccine, adding that it is expected that the first payment will be made these days.

Ardakanian also said Iran would use its funds blocked in neighboring Iraq to purchase vaccines from Russia against the COVID-19 disease.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with Hantoush in Tehran on Sunday, Ardakanian said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered that the money needed for buying COVID-19 vaccines be provided from funds held in different parts of the world.

“According to an agreement between Iran and Russia, part of Iraq’s debt to Iran will be spent on purchasing Russian vaccines,” the minister said.

Ardakanian said necessary arrangements with Baghdad and Moscow have been made and “we expect that the first payments will be made in the coming days.”

Iran has billions of dollars in a Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) account which processes Iraq’s payments for imports of natural gas and electricity from Iran.

However, the funds have been frozen because of the US sanctions on Iran which restrict the use of the dollar for transactions involving Tehran.

On Sunday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) announced that it has imported the largest consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China.

“This consignment of one million doses of the coronavirus vaccine arrived today at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport,” said IRCS Secretary-General Mohammad Hassan Ghosian Moghaddam.

Other than importing reliable foreign vaccines, Iran has developed its own vaccines which are currently in the last phases of human trials.

The post Tehran, Baghdad Reach Agreements in Supplying Energy appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh said the increase in electricity prices will be done according to the government’s decree in recent years.

He said that based on the “power of Hope” program the electricity subscribers are categorized in three groups of high consuming, normal consuming and low consuming, adding that after the implementation of this program seven million low-consuming subscribers were subject to a 100-percent discount, and the number of the high consuming subscribers was decreased by six percent.

He said, “Since the start of this program in last August, the subscribers have had some good cooperation with us, and we hope that the hot season coming this cooperation will increase.”

Implementation of a program by the Iranian Energy Ministry for rewarding efficient electricity subscribers with a 100 percent discount on their bills, has reduced the number of high-consuming subscribers across the country by 6.1 percent.

According to TAVANIR, this program called “Power of Hope”, was aimed to change the attitudes of household consumers towards the proper use of energy resources and consequently protect the environment.

The Energy Ministry started the implementation of the mentioned program in mid-August 2020.

In late August 2020, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian had announced that the Power of Hope program was expected to reduce the country’s electricity consumption by 10 percent.

“This program will be implemented to both reward low-consuming subscribers and to encourage others to consume less and it is expected to reduce power consumption by 10 percent,” Ardakanian said in a press conference on the occasion of the Government Week (August 23-29, 2020).

The minister noted that according to a cabinet decision, all the subscribers that cooperated well with the Energy Ministry’s consumption management programs this summer are to be awarded.

“To do so, home subscribers were divided into three categories, which include low-consumers, normal-consumers, and high-consumers,” he said.

The post Electricity bills increase 33% for high consuming subscribers appeared first on Iran News Daily.

He put the country’ current electricity export capacity to Iraq at 60 megawatts.

Presently, a considerable portion of energy is exported to neighboring countries through Gharb (West) Regional Electricity Company’s grid, he said, adding, “the company is regarded as one of energy export corridors to neighboring Iraq.”

Managing Director of Gharb (West Regional Electricity Company Ali Asadi once again reiterated, “by increasing power generation capacity and developing ultra-distribution and transmission network in the region, the country enjoys high capability and potential to increase its export capacity from 600 megawatts to 1,200 megawatts electricity.”

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