TEHRAN - Electricity consumption in Iran rose by nine percent in the year to March due to new connections and higher use, a senior official said in remarks published on Thursday. Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Mallaki told Iranian journalists that electricity consumption in the year rose to 96 billion kilowatt-hours despite a media campaign by the government to curb use. Mallaki said four percent of the increase was the result of higher consumption while the remaining five percent was due to 600,000 new connections which raised to 13 million the total number of connections in the country.

He said production capacity would increase by 1,400 megawatts (mw) to 24,900 mw in the current Iranian year which runs to March 1999. Iran exports 40 mw to each of neighboring Turkey and Azerbaijan, but power sales to Armenia have stopped. Mallaki was quoted as saying. (Reuters)