Iran rises electricity imports from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia

Teheran, July 12 - Neftegaz.RU. Iranian Energy Ministry's Spokesman for Electricity Industry Mostafa Mashhadi said the country has increased the electricity imports from 3 neighboring countries to offset the surge in domestic demand.

Mashhadi wrote on his social media:

• Up to 650 megawatts (MW) of electricity is currently imported from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Armenia
• Due to the infrastructure limitations and domestic demands, the mentioned countries are not able to supply Iran with more electricity

He underlined that managing consumption is the best possible option at the moment for preventing blackouts during the summer peak period.
The official called on people and businesses to manage their electricity consumption especially in peak consumption hours of the day.

• Iran has stopped electricity exports to neighboring countries due to the surge in domestic demand and only 50 MW of electricity is exported to Afghanistan at the moment
• The country’s power plants are currently able to generate only 54,000 MW of electricity which is nearly 12,000 MW less than the domestic power demand

Daily electricity consumption in Iran reached 66,250 megawatts (66.25 gigawatts) on July 5, to register a new record in the history of Iran’s electricity industry as a new heatwave has blanketed the country over the past few days.
The mentioned figure was 8,000 MW more than the consumption in the previous year’s peak period, and 10,000 MW more than the figure in the previous year’s same date.

This year, however, new deteriorating factors like severe drought and the decline in the country’s water resources as well as a new wave of illegal cryptocurrency mining across the country have also worsened the situation.