Page 72 - IRANRptOct22

Tehran officials cut power to ‘big drain’ office blocks in bid to avoid blackouts
Dozens hospitalised in Iranian city as heatwave temperatures exceed 51.5°C
Farmers in Iran’s Isfahan reports no progress in addressing water shortages one year after mass protests
from the Sabalan geothermal power plant to the interior of Meshgin Shahr city was completed at a cost of over 100 billion rial (around $325,000,” Hossein Al-Padiyy was reported as saying.
Eleven wells to a depth of 3,000 metres were drilled in the slopes of the Sablan stratovolcano so that the $47mn plant can tap geothermal energy, according to Al-Padiyy.
The 27-kilometre-long transmission line connects to a 63 kV substation.
Fearing power shortages, Iran’s state electricity supplier has cut power to Tehran office blocks it says are a big drain on the grid, IRIB reported on June 22.
Drastic measures to reduce electricity consumption have become rather familiar to Iranians in recent years, with power demand outstripping capacity during peak consumption months in the summer. The total cost to the economy of a day of extensive blackouts, such as through the disruption of commerce, is often estimated in the millions of dollars.
Masoud Nasri, head of the Electricity Monitoring Centre in Tehran, in a live state TV interview listed the names of what he claimed were high-power-consumption offices, namely: Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, Commerce Bank central building, Agriculture Bank, Tehran Telecommunication Centre, Iran International Exhibition Centre, Sharif University of Technology, Roads and Transportation Organisation and Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organisation.
“At 12 o'clock, when most of the administrative work is done and the number of clients decreases, devices that fail to comply with the [advised] consumption pattern and take more [power] than is in the electricity consumption pattern will be cut off,” Nasri said.
More than 50 people were hospitalised amid temperatures that reached in excess of 51.5°C in Iran’s western city of Dehloran as a severe heatwave hit the country, state broadcaster IRIB reported on June 21.
The extreme heat, which broke the city’s recorded all-time high temperature level, will be taken as another worrying sign that Iran will face the brunt of accelerating climate change due to its large land mass, geographical position and big population of 85mn, which is already facing significant water shortages in various localities.
The super-strong heat faced by the inhabitants of Dehloran and other areas led to the failure of electrical distribution boards, leaving people without operable air conditioning.
Earlier, local media reported that the summer of 2022 could be the hottest in the history of Iran, with widespread power failures anticipated.
Iran, meanwhile, has been shutting down even legal cryptocurrency mining operations nationwide to ease the strain the energy-thirsty enterprises place on the national power grid.
Farmers in the central Iranian province of Isfahan have told Radio Farda that their difficulties with water shortages have not eased despite pledges by the government to increase water supplies.
Water shortages in the province led to mass protests in November last year and a violent government crackdown.
Iran is enduring water scarcity due to prolonged drought, reduced rainfall and what critics describe as years of mismanagement. For instance, experts accuse officials of encouraging the cultivation of water-thirsty crops such as rice in areas of the country of 85mn where water resources are stretched. There are some ongoing efforts to boost water desalination efforts by building
72 IRAN Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com