Iran Report Examines Reasons for Electricity Shortage
Posted on: Saturday, 5 July 2008, 06:00 CDT
Text of report headlined: "10,000 megawatts of electricity gone missing!" published by Iranian newspaper Aftab-e Yazd website on 30 June
While Bitaraf, Khatami's energy minister, said in his last interview late last year that the ninth government was given 40,000 megawatts of electricity three years ago [or in the last three years], the present Energy Minister Parviz Fattah states that in spite of the ninth government bringing tens of thousands of megawatts of electricity online, electricity production capacity is less than 40,000 megawatts, Tabnak reported.
Fattah said on television last Saturday that the country's maximum thermal electricity production capacity was 33,000 megawatts, and 1,500 of some 7,000 megawatts of hydro-electricity being used at present. He said the draining of dams last winter was due to forecasts by the Meteorological Organization and to prevent power cuts in winter; he added, "the Energy Ministry realized there was insufficient rainfall at the start of Esfand [late February] and controlled water coming out of dams. The output of hydro- electricity was 250 megawatts this winter, compared to 2,000 megawatts in 86 [2007-8]."
The minister said the country needed to build more than 8,000 megawatts of electricity production capacity a year and studies on producing this level of electricity were complete and the ministry was waiting for government investment; he confirmed at the same time Ahmadinezhad's comments that there were no limits to investment in the electricity industry. Fattah said separately that the country does not export electricity in the summer and "electricity is exported in the winter."
He spoke however of the transit of electricity to Turkey and implicitly to other northern neighbours. In that case, official figures for electricity production that exceed 50,000 megawatts differ from the seasonal consumption figure of about 35,000 megawatts, and even if the country's hydro-electricity capacity is excluded due to drought, according to Energy Ministry's official figures, the national grid has the capacity to produce 43,000 megawatts of thermal electricity.
The minister has given 33,000 megawatts however as the maximum thermal electricity production capacity - a difference of 10,000 megawatts. The discrepancy could not be explained in terms of waste in the grid or a real fall in production compared to the nominal capacity due to heat, because as the minister has said himself, this year was not as hot as last year. The important question is, if the country can produce 43,000 megawatts, why is the Energy Ministry not able to meet the country's demand of 35,000 megawatts?
There are several suppositions here:
1 - Degradation and fall in production in the national grid exceeds world standards, at about 25 per cent, which indicates managerial problems. 2 - Part of the country's electricity production capacity is no longer in the grid for the failure to do essential repairs and for lack of money. 3 - Part of the production capacity is formally inaugurated, but not yet in use. 4 - Part of the country's electricity production capacity is being consumed in the form of secret electricity exports to certain neighbours.
Originally published by Aftab-e Yazd website, Tehran, in Persian 30 Jun 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East
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