Significant Lag in Iran's Electricity Production Growth

As scheduled power outages have been implemented in various cities across Iran and electricity exports to Iraq, the country's largest customer, have been halted, new statistics from the Ministry of Energy indicate a significant lag in the growth of the country's electricity production. The latest weekly report from the Ministry of Energy, published on its official website and covering electricity production statistics up to July 6, shows that the newly installed power generation capacity this year has only been 250 megawatts. This is while it was planned that the country's electricity production would increase by 3,855 megawatts for the entire year. To prevent power outages and meet the rising consumption, Iran needs to add at least 5 percent, or about 4,000 megawatts, to its electricity production each year. Last year, the growth in Iran's electricity production was only 2.8 percent. On the other hand, Iran's electricity exports have decreased by 15 percent this year, reaching 2.4 terawatt-hours. (Watt is a unit of power measurement and watt-hour is a unit of energy measurement). The total electricity production in Iran this year (up to July 6) has been 96 terawatt-hours. Iran has also imported 1.15 terawatt-hours of electricity. The Iranian Minister of Energy confirmed on Tuesday, July 17, the halt of electricity exports to Iraq, citing a shortage of electricity domestically. Last year, Iran exported nearly 7.9 terawatt-hours of electricity, 85 percent of which went to Iraq. The rise in the consumption of dirty fuels for electricity production has been notable, with the Ministry of Energy reporting that the consumption of fuel oil and diesel in Iran's power sector has reached about 1.3 billion liters by July 6, a 56 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Additionally, the delivery of gas to power plants has increased by 4.5 percent to over 22.5 billion cubic meters. The reason for the surge in liquid fuel consumption, according to Iranian officials, is the overdue debts of some private power plants regarding gas delivery. These plants have been forced to purchase and use polluting liquid fuels. Meanwhile, Iran's hydropower plants are facing reduced electricity production due to a lack of rainfall and declining water levels in dams. Hydropower plants have produced about 3.25 terawatt-hours of electricity by July 6, down from 5.8 terawatt-hours in the same period last year. The electricity production capacity from renewable sources in Iran remains at 364 megawatts, with no growth this year, accounting for less than half a percent of the total electricity production in the country.