TEHRAN - Iran’s Power Generation and Distribution Company (TAVANIR) has rewarded domestic subscribers for low electricity consumption with 1.84 trillion rials (about $43.8 million) of discount on their electricity bills since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020), an official with the company said.

Also, last year the company awarded efficient household electricity subscribers with about 1.06 trillion rials (about $25.23 million) worth of discount on their bills, Qolamali Rakhshani-Mehr said.

According to the official, low-consuming electricity subscribers in the industry and agriculture sectors were also rewarded with 4.81 trillion rials ($114.52 million) of discounts on their bills since the beginning of the current year.

The figure was 3.5 trillion rials (about $83.33 million) last year, he noted.

Mentioning the shortage of the fuel supply to power plants during the cold seasons due to the rise in the natural gas consumption, Rakhshani-Mehr said: “To encourage people to reduce their consumption, which will lead to the reduction of fuel consumption by power plants, the Energy Ministry offers summer peak period incentives also during the winter.”

He further mentioned the ministry’s “Power of Hope” program, saying: “This plan aims to change the attitudes of household consumers towards the proper use of energy resources and consequently protect the environment.”

The Energy Ministry has recently implemented a program for rewarding efficient electricity subscribers with a 100 percent discount on their bills.

This program was implemented to both reward low-consuming subscribers and to encourage others to consume less.

According to the Energy Ministry, this program is expected to reduce domestic power consumption by 10 percent.

Based on this plan, household subscribers were divided into three categories, which include low-consumers, normal-consumers, and high-consumers.

Two programs were also offered for high-consuming subscribers so that by implementing these plans, these subscribers would also join the low-consumer group.

The first program was a training course to teach consumption management methods with the help of knowledge-based companies and start-ups, while the second plan was to install solar panels on the roofs of high-consuming subscribers' houses so that such subscribers would meet their electricity needs by installing these PV stations.

EF/