Iran relies on natural gas for nearly 90% of its power generation demand: Expert
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 on Saturday 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 said, according to remarks covered by the IRIB News.
The analyst said 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.
He said Iran also supplies considerable volumes of gasoil to its power plants in cold winter months when household demand for natural gas peaks to record highs.
O’raei said, however, that Iran should consider a change in its arrangements for energy supply to the country’s electricity sector, adding that low-efficiency power plants in the country are making a large wastage of natural gas and gasoil resources.
He said the average efficiency rate of thermal power plants in Iran is around 38%, adding that some old electricity stations near the capital Tehran only convert 20% of the energy they receive to electricity and the rest is wasted as heat.
“We have to carry out reforms in the electricity industry and we should prepare our minds for these reforms,” said the expert, who is a lecturer at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology.
Iran is the third largest gas producer in the world after Russia and the United States with a production capacity that exceeds 1 bcm per day.
The country is also the world’s third largest gas consumer after the US, Russia and China with a peak winter demand that is expected to reach 0.7 bcm per day this winter.
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