"Hydroelectric power plants are in good conditions and most dams are full. However, this does not mean that subscribers should not uphold judicious consumption patterns," the minister was quoted as saying by Mehr News agency Tuesday.
Iran has one of the highest water, electricity and gas consumption rates in the world that has caused immense anxiety in economic and environmental circles.
The minister went on to say: presumptions that due to torrential downpours the national power grid is going to be 100% stable and power supply will have no difficulty are wrong, Financial Tribune reported.
"So long as state organizations, households and industrial sectors do not decrease consumption, power cuts will be impossible to avoid."
Temperature increase by one degree Celsius raises overall electricity demand by at least 700 megawatts, he recalled.
He stressed the critical need to reduce consumption during peak hours by adjusting temperature of cooling systems between 24 and 26 degrees Celsius.
High and rising temperatures are a permanent feature of large parts in Iran for almost half a year, especially in the southern and central desert areas where the mercury has climbed to 50 degrees Celsius in recent years.
In late June 2017, the mercury in Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, registered a sweltering 53.7°C —the country’s all-time hottest temperature.
For years environmentalists and the Energy Ministry have urged people and industries to reduce power consumption, especially in the hot summer season when demand surpasses supply and phased blackouts are imposed in parts of the country.
National power load is expected to increase by 5% in the current fiscal, Ardakanian noted.
“Network load reached 58,000 megawatts during peak hours in the last fiscal that ended in March and is expected to surpass 61 gigawatts this summer."
Since the beginning of the current water year last September, the volume of water flowing into dams reached 64.08 billion cubic meters, up 300% compared to 16.15 bcm last year.
Iran registered significant improvement in rainfall in recent months and precipitation in almost all provinces exceeded the average in 50 years.