TEHRAN- As announced by an official with Iran’s Thermal Power Plant Holding (TPPH), so far, more than 70,000 megawatts (MW) (77 percent) of the overhaul operation of the country's power plants has been done to provide stable electricity during this summer's peak consumption period.

Esmaeil Namazi,, the director-general of TPPH’s technical office for production, said for the repairs of power plants in this period, 90,000 MW of repair programs have been predicted, of which more than 70,000 MW have been done so far, and the remaining 20,000 MW is related to the periodical repairs that should be done by the end of May, so that the thermal power plants will be ready to supply the electricity needed for the peak consumption period this summer.

Meanwhile, the head of Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) has recently announced that the company has defined 40 programs for maintaining electricity supply and preventing power outages during the hot season peak consumption period.

Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh underlined early increase in the temperature and water shortage for hydropower plants as the most important challenges this year, saying: "These issues have forced the early implementation of preventive programs and in this regard, 40 programs have been prepared by Tavanir, and will be implemented across the country.”

Based on the mentioned programs, the responsibilities of various ministries and specialized parent companies have been determined and assigned, the official said.

He noted that the ceiling for incentive packages allocated to each province has also been determined and the governorates of the provinces have been notified in this regard.

“Government organizations and entities are the first priority for implementing consumption management programs, and in this regard monitoring and optimization of air conditioning and lighting systems in such offices should be seriously pursued”, he stressed.

According to the latest data provided by the Energy Ministry, currently, 55 hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 12,169 megawatts (MW) are operating across the country and the water shortage will seriously affect their output.

Iran’s current power generation capacity stands at about 85 GW of which the share of hydroelectric power stands at nearly 16 percent.

Water shortage in Iran has become a serious issue in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) since the amount of rainfalls in the country have declined significantly in the current water year.

Earlier this week, the Iranian Deputy Energy Minister for Water and Wastewater Affairs Ghasem Taqizadeh Khamesi said that the country will be facing some problems in providing water for various sectors in the current year.

MA/MA