The sharp rise in power consumption has caused worry for the Iran Power Generation, Transmission & Distribution Company (Tavanir). Tavanir announced that in the last week, peak consumption reached 50,000 Megawatts which shows a 10% increase compared to last year.
The vice president of Tavanir, Mohammadreza Haghifam said: “If this trend continues, we will face problems in generation, transmission and distribution in the central network during peak consumption which are the months of July and August. The central network is prepared for a 5% to 7% increase but 10% is too much to handle and we need to manage consumption in order to avoid problems in the generation, transmission and distribution chain.”
In Iran, peak consumption is between the hours of 12 and 16 as well as 19 and 23. Tavanir has asked residents to avoid using high consumption appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines and clothing irons during these hours.
“Nearly 36% of consumption during peak hours is due to air conditioners. We can shut off air conditioners for 30 minutes once the room has been cooled. This can help manage the load. During summer, we face extreme heat in the southern and eastern parts of the country; with the help of subscribers we can prevent black-outs across the country”, Haghifam added.
The increased load in Ahwaz, the capital city of Khuzestan due to hot weather led to several substations catching fire on Sunday, 18 June 2017, which caused black-outs throughout the city.
