BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 10. Iran's dependence on natural gas poses a threat to the country's energy security, teacher of Iran's Sharif University of Technology, and expert on energy issues Hashem Oraee told ILNA, Trend reports.
According to Oraee, about 90 percent of the country's power plants depend on gas fuel. On the other hand, it creates serious problems with the increase in gas consumption in winter.
The expert added that as soon as there is a shortage of gas in Iran, supplying gas to residential buildings and commercial facilities becomes a priority, and as a result, the volume of gas supplied to power plants is reduced.
"In other words, Iran's energy basket is flawed and overly dependent on gas," he explained. "In my opinion, construction of a thermal power station in Iran should be prohibited. Because as the generation of TPPs increases, the consumption also increases. Energy consumption should be optimized in the country."
Oraee also pointed out that over the last 20 years (2000-2019), global energy consumption has decreased by 24 percent and only a few countries have not optimized their energy consumption. Meanwhile in Iran, energy consumption for the mentioned period increased by 42.5 percent.
As for the nuclear power plants, Oraee noted that the main problem is the investment to be made in this sector. For example, about $600-$800 are spent for the generation of 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity at the thermal power plants, while the figure reaches $4,000 at the nuclear power plant.
He also said that in total, $4.5-$5 billion were spent for the 1000 megawatt-hour Bushehr nuclear Power Plant. In the current conditions, it is impossible to enter the field of construction of Nuclear Power Plants in a country like Iran, which is facing a lack of investment. In the current conditions, it is almost impossible to build a new nuclear power plant in a country such as Iran, which is facing a lack of investment.
Overall, the gas consumption in Iran amounted to 109 billion cubic meters within the first six months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through September 22, 2022).
Of this, 39.3 billion cubic meters of gas were consumed by residential buildings and small industrial facilities, 26.9 billion cubic meters - by Iran's large industrial facilities (petrochemical plants, steel plants and other plants), and 43.4 billion cubic meters - by Iran’s thermal power plants.
Iran's gas production is currently around 1 billion cubic meters per day.
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