“Daily consumption of liquefied fuels in thermal stations reached 10 million liters in the period,” IRNA quoted Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi as saying. He warned that if the trend continues power outages would be announced.
Of the total eco-unfriendly liquefied fuel consumption, diesel accounted for 7 million liters per day and mazut 3 ml/d, according to Financial Tribune.
All thermal plants (except for Konarak and Chabahar power plants in Sistan-Baluchestan Province and Zarand Combined Cycle Power Plant in Kerman Province) are linked to the national gas grid.
Between December 2019 and February 2020, the plants’ diesel and mazut consumption jumped to 40 ml/d -- up 300% compared to March-December (2019).
Mashhadi went on to say that due to the massive rise in household gas consumption, hovering around 600 mcm/d over the last 30 days, power stations have not received enough gas as feedstock and had to use environmentally-unfriendly fuels.
“If the household sector does not reduce consumption, more mazut will be burnt,” he said, adding that in addition to ecological hazards, liquefied fuels hurt power stations’ efficiency and increase maintenance costs.
Around 50% of thermal plants are being overhauled, and “if the rest are fed with mazut, power outages will be inevitable”, he said.
The weatherman has forecast a drop in temperatures across the country in the coming week and the Energy Ministry has urged subscribers to use gas more judiciously to avid power cuts.
“Providing subscribers with stable electric supply depends on delivering sufficient natural gas to power plants.”