Iran relies on natural gas for a bulk of its electricity generation demand, according to figures provided by a senior energy expert who believes low-efficiency rates in Iranian power plants are causing a considerable amount of waste in the sector.
Hashem O’raei said that the share of gas in power generation in Iran had increased from 35% in 1985 to 86% in 2022.
That comes as the global power plant demand for natural gas had risen from 14% to 23% over the same period, O’raei stated, according to remarks covered by the IRIB News.
The analyst noted that Iranian power plants consume some 79 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year, nearly a third of the country’s total annual gas production.
Few days earlier, Reza Sepahvand, a member of the parliamentary Energy Committee, said that Iran is expected to add 14 power plants to its electricity grid to prevent power cuts during the hot months of the next year.
Early in August, Iran’s then Minister of Energy Ali-Akbar Mehrabian said that unprecedented heat had caused a 9% rise in the country’s electricity consumption as summer heat had reached record levels.