TEHRAN - Daily electricity consumption in Iran reached 58,104 megawatts (58.1 gigawatts) on Saturday to register the highest power consumption recorded in the history of Iran’s electricity industry, IRNA reported.

Based on the data released by Iran's Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution Management Company, known as TAVANIR, the recorded figure was 333 MW more than the last year’s peak consumption.

According to the Energy Ministry’s Spokesman for Electricity Industry, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, currently, 14 provinces are in the red zone for high electricity consumption and TAVANIR might be forced to cut some over-consumers from the grid.

“If consumers cooperate [and manage their consumption], we will get through the summer without any blackouts, otherwise we will have to impose some restrictions,” Rajabi Mashhadi told ILNA on Saturday.

The official said the electricity consumption is expected to increase even more in the coming week since the weather is expected to get even hotter.

“For every degree increase in temperature, 1500 MW is added to the country's electricity consumption,” Rajabi Mashahadi said.

He called on people to decrease their consumption and avoid using appliances with high energy consumption during peak consumption hours.

The rise in electricity consumption comes as earlier this month the energy ministry had warned of the unprecedented increases in power consumption across the country.

With the beginning of the hot season in Iran, the electricity consumption has been constantly increasing across the country so that several new records have been registered for the power consumption in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage the consumption and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

EF/MA