Wearing coats banned in Khuzestan offices to "reduce electricity consumption"
Iranian news agencies reported on Sunday, May 9, that wearing coats in offices in Khuzestan province has been banned this summer to "reduce electricity consumption."
Mahmoud Dasht-e-Bozorg, CEO of the Khuzestan Regional Electricity Company, wrote a letter to Qasem Soleimani Dashtaki, the governor of the province, on Saturday, proposing that in order to manage electricity consumption in Khuzestan, all employees and managers in Khuzestan be banned from wearing coats from the first of June until the end of September of this year.
With reduced rainfall and a drop in hydroelectric power production, as well as delays in the launch of thermal power plants, Ministry of Energy officials have warned that the country will face a power shortage this summer.
The Ministry of Energy also banned the use of gas air conditioners in all institutions and offices in Tehran on May 4.
The directive prohibiting wearing jackets in Khuzestan offices or using air conditioners comes at a time when, according to official statistics, about 10 percent of the country's electricity production is wasted at the distribution stage. This figure is equivalent to more than the total electricity consumption of the country's public sector, including offices, and one-third of the electricity consumption of all households in the country.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Energy, the country's total non-specific electricity production last year was 343 TWh, of which about 10 TWh was exported and 287 TWh was sold to domestic customers. The remaining electricity (46 TWh) was consumed in the power plants themselves and the rest was wasted in the distribution network.
The public sector, including offices, accounts for 8.5 percent of the country's electricity consumption. The household sector accounts for 32.4 percent, the industrial sector accounts for 36.3 percent, the agricultural sector accounts for 14.4 percent, and street lighting and the commercial sector together account for about 8.4 percent of the country's total electricity consumption.
Iran's nuclear program, with its claim to produce nuclear power, has led to crippling sanctions against the country for more than a decade, and the country's electricity production growth plan has consistently been less than half achieved over the past few years. This is despite the fact that, according to statistics from the Ministry of Energy, the share of nuclear power in the country's total electricity production is less than 2 percent.
Seyyed Karim Hosseini, a representative from Ahvaz in the parliament, tweeted in response to the ban on wearing jackets in Khuzestan offices: "Solving Khuzestan's problems requires providing practical solutions. Raising marginalizing issues will only take away time and energy from managers."
He added that prohibiting employees from "wearing coats" does not work to reduce electricity consumption.
According to Mr. Hosseini, this can be achieved through methods such as collecting unauthorized cryptocurrency mining devices, modifying consumption patterns, etc.
Source: Radio Farda
