Ahmadinejad: Electricity Rationing to Follow Gasoline

A week after launching his gasoline rationing scheme, which led to violence across the country, president Ahmadinejad announced his desire to replicate to replicate the idea for electricity as well. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Shahid Reyis Ali Delvari dam in Bushehr province, he referred to gasoline rationing and announced, “This type of conservation could also be applied to electricity consumption.” His remarks were published in reformist newspaper Etemad Melli, following the public approval of gasoline rationing announced by the leader of the Islamic regime, ayatollah Khamenei.

Etemad Melli, the only publication that gave prominence to the president’s remarks, quoted the president saying, “We have 3 million commercial units and 17 million families, totaling 20 million users. If each turns off a 100 watt lamp during peak power consumption hours of the day, we shall save about 2,000 megawatts of power consumption. This amounts to the power generation of two Bushehr-size nuclear power plants.”

According to Etemad Melli, “With these words, the president implicitly launched his desire to replicate the gasoline rationing scheme for the ministry of power.” The president of the Islamic Republic spoke of the need to conserve electricity at a time when just last week the minister of power boasted a record amount of electricity produced in the country last year. “If no unexpected problem occurs and power consumption does not radically change during peak hours, we shall not have the expected power breaks,” he said. Minister Parviz Fattah who was speaking to journalists and comparing last year’s power cuts with this year’s claimed that there was a 36 percent reduction in power cuts until Khordad 31 this year (mid June). “The current production of electricity in the country stands at 33,700 megawatts, which will increase to 39,000 megawatts in September,” he said. In an earlier interview with the national radio and television, Fattah had said that the current levels of electricity production met the consumption needs of the country. “Investments of the regime from the beginning of the revolution have brought us to a point that we can now claim that with 45,000 megawatts of nominal power production, we are among the leading countries in the region in this regard.”

These words of the minister of the ninth Islamic government were made at a time when during the past recent weeks the country experienced extensive black outs, which experts have attributed to the run-down and limited capacity of the power grid, “parts of which are over 50 years old, requiring renovation.”

Ahmadinejad’s calls for electricity consumption stem from the 20 percent fall in gasoline consumption caused by the rationing scheme. It is in this light that Etemad Melli concluded that “it should not be surprising if a plan similar to the gasoline rationing scheme is soon announced for electricity.” The president’s comments gain weight when one notes that just last week the ministry of power called on the public to conserve on power consumption warning that if they did not, they would face power cuts. This warning made the headlines in Hamshahri newspaper.

Observers point out that these remarks are aimed at preparing the public for the consequences of economic sanctions that have been and will most likely continue to be enacted against the Islamic Republic at the UN Security Council. In the meantime, Fars news agency published the report of an American research center on Ahmadinejad’s revolution in the energy sector to break the economic sanctions against Iran. The report says that Ahmadinejad is well aware of his country’s Achilles heel and is implementing a three-pronged strategy to reduce the economic dependency of the country on imported petroleum products to confront US-led economic sanctions against Iran.