Making the remarks in a press conference on Wednesday, Mohsen Tarztalab said that the big and high-consuming industries of steel, metals, and mining have been previously supplying for the permits to construct the electricity self-supply and self-consumption units, and their requests have been examined.

The minister of industry, mining, and trade examined 13 applications in this regard in a meeting with the mentioned industries, and finally a list was prepared and sent to the Energy Ministry, the official explained.

On July 7, the deputy industry, mining, and trade minister applied for the permits for constructing power plants with the total capacity of 10,536 megawatts (MW), and related agreement in principle was issued yesterday, he added.

Mobarakeh Steel Company for 1,500 MW of new capacity, the Persian Gulf Special Zone for 1,500 MW, Al-Mahdi Aluminum Company for 500 MW, Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company for 1,000 MW and Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company Phase 2 for 1,300 MW were among the industries that applied, the official further announced.

Deputy Industry Minister Saeed Zarandi had told Mehr News Agency on Sunday that the Ministries of Energy and Industry, Mining and Trade are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) within a week for collaboration in constructing 13 power plants for industrial units across the country.

“This week or during the next week, a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the two ministers of industry and energy to start the construction of 13 power plants for industrial units across the country,” the official had stated.

“Since earlier this year, the Industry Ministry, on behalf of the industrial sector, started seeking a permit for building 13 power plants. We held several meetings with Tavanir [Iran’s Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company] and the Energy Ministry and proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the ministry. We also sent a letter to the Energy Ministry last week to expedite the issuance of the permit,” Zarandi explained.

According to the official, the mentioned power plants are financed by 12 investors from various industrial sectors and will be constructed within 2.5-3 years.

The official noted that the power plants will have a total capacity of about 10,536 megawatts whose output will be used by the mentioned industrial units.

As reported, the said power plants will be constructed in Isfahan, Hormozgan, Markazi, Yazd, Kerman, Fars, Semnan, and Khuzestan provinces.

One of the main goals of this program is to provide reliable and sustainable electricity to high-consuming industries and the country’s industrial parks in order to reduce the pressure imposed on the national grid in the industry and mining sector, according to Zarandi.

“If these power plants are built, a significant load will be removed from the national electricity distribution network,” he stressed.

The official further noted that in case of any surplus electricity generation, the industrial units can sell the surplus electricity to the Energy Ministry.

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According to Esmail Namazi, the director-general of Research and Construction Office of Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH), the output of thermal power plants in the same period last year was about 93 million megawatt-hours, IRNA reported.

The official mentioned the inactivity of hydropower plants due to drought, the rising temperature, and the increase in electricity demand, as well as the inactivity of the country’s nuclear power plants on some days as reasons for the increase in electricity generation by thermal power plants.

“Thermal power plants have tried to stay active for more hours by shortening the time of their periodic repairs and fixing occasional problems in the power plant units, to compensate the electricity generation deficit in the country,” Namazi said.

He further noted that all thermal power plants across the country are currently operating at maximum capacity, and the employees of the country’s electricity industry are doing their best to keep the power plants in the grid despite the new wave of coronavirus pandemic and the extreme heat.

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.

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.

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.

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The company has announced that the overhauled power plants will be put into operation gradually and before the peak consumption period in summer (starts on June 22 based on the Iranian calendar), IRNA reported.

Hot weather, reduced production of hydropower plants due to water shortage, increased activities of illegal cryptocurrency miners, as well as the coronavirus pandemic, have caused the Energy Ministry to face some challenges in meeting the electricity demands in the summer peak period.

In this regard, the ministry has been implementing several programs for preventing electricity shortages and blackouts in the hot season.

Accelerating the completion of annual overhaul operations of power plants has been one of the mentioned programs that have been considered for boosting power supply.

Signing agreements with industrial and agricultural sectors for reducing the electricity consumption by these sectors has been also another program that the ministry is implementing.

Also, the reduction of electricity exports is considered as another solution to meet the domestic electricity demand during the summertime.

“In some cases, and based on existing contracts, the electricity exports, came close to zero,” Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian has said.

According to the official, the government is also negotiating with some neighboring countries including Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia for increasing electricity imports in the summer.

Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister for Electricity Affairs Homayoun Haeri announced on May 19, that power consumption in the country rose 7,000-8,000 megawatts (MW) since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21) up to the mentioned date, as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

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, the official said.

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