Two New Records in Iran's Electricity Consumption in Two Weeks

Two weeks after setting a historical record, Iran's electricity consumption has again set a new record. According to a report from the government's information base, the peak electricity consumption due to hot weather across the country reached 51,229 megawatts on July 18, marking an increase of 11,672 megawatts compared to last year. This amount is the highest electricity consumption recorded in Iran's history. Previously, the consumption record was set at 51,025 megawatts on July 3. The report adds that the peak electricity consumption on the same day last year was reported at 39,557 megawatts; therefore, there was an increase of 11,672 megawatts compared to the same day last year. The government's information base has urged the public to manage consumption, especially during peak hours, to ensure stable electricity for everyone and to avoid using high-consumption electrical appliances during these hours. Iran was supposed to increase its electricity production by 5% last year, but in practice, it managed to increase its production capacity by less than 1%. Currently, the nominal capacity of Iran's power plants is about 75,000 megawatts, but according to the latest weekly report from the Ministry of Energy, the actual power of the national electricity grid is about 59,000 megawatts, with over 10% lost during transmission and distribution. According to this report, Iran has added 1,000 megawatts to its electricity production capacity this solar year, but despite this increase, Iran's electricity exports in the first 110 days of the year (up to July 8) decreased by 39% compared to the same period last year. In 2013, Iran had about 8 billion kilowatt-hours of net electricity exports, but this figure has consecutively decreased over the past two years, and according to the latest official report from the Ministry of Energy, Iran exported less than 300 million megawatt-hours of electricity in the first 110 days of this year. In other words, Iran's daily electricity exports have decreased on average by about 9 times over the past two years. Iran's revenue from electricity exports in 2013 was about $800 million. Meanwhile, Iran's electricity imports have surged. In the first 110 days of the year, Iran's electricity imports were 1 billion 470 million kilowatt-hours, showing a 6% increase compared to the same period last year. However, compared to the average daily electricity imports in 2013, this figure has increased by more than 1.5 times. Iran states that it needs $20 billion in new investment over the next five years to increase its electricity production and transmission capacity by 26,000 megawatts. This figure is estimated to be $50 billion for the next seven years. "Watt" is the unit of power measurement and "watt-hour" is the unit of energy measurement; one kilowatt-hour is equal to the energy consumed by a device with a power of 1000 watts over one hour.