Electricity deficit crisis in Iran; "Major producers will not have electricity for half of the summer"

While a member of the Electricity Producers Syndicate has reported a 15,000 megawatt electricity deficit in the country this summer due to delays in the construction of power plants, the vice chairman of the Chamber of Commerce's Industries Commission says that large producers will not have electricity for half of the summer.

Payam Bagheri, a member of the Electricity Producers Syndicate, told ILNA news agency on Tuesday, July 11: "To prevent electricity deficits, 5,000 megawatts should have been added to the country's electricity production annually in previous years, but this has not happened." Referring to the failure to realize electricity production growth plans, he said that this summer we will have a 15,000 megawatt electricity deficit.

At the same time, Abbas Jabal Barzi, vice chairman of the Industries Commission of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, said that due to the country's electricity deficit, large companies have been asked to stop production for 5 to 6 weeks out of the 12 weeks of the summer season.

He continued by saying that some businesses are currently operating at 50 percent capacity and many at 20 to 30 percent capacity.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Energy, less than half of the government's plans for building power plants have been realized over the past three years. Last year, only a third of the electricity production growth targets were achieved.

The government has set a target of launching more than 5,000 megawatts of new power plants this year, while statistics from the Ministry of Energy show that only 648 megawatts of new power plants have been launched in the first two months of this year.

Source: Radio Farda