Risk of winter blackouts grows: Power plant fuel reserves nearing depletion?

With power plants' fuel reserves now complete and alternative fuels planned in case of gas restrictions, the electricity industry's readiness for the cold season has increased.

The turbines of the thermal power plants are still hot from trying to provide stable electricity in the hot summer days, but now they have to welcome the cold seasons of the year; The days where the heavy shadow of gas disharmony casts a shadow on them.

Over the past years, the energy imbalance has dictated a reality to the power plant body of the country, that after fighting with the hot days of the year, sometimes we have to welcome the season without a break and fresh breath.

The power plants are doomed to be resilient in these conditions, because neglecting the diversification of the country's fuel portfolio, unbalanced development, neglecting land development along with population growth and not considering the process of sustainable fuel production and supply have created such conditions for them.

Until just three weeks ago, in the summer, the country's power plants, including thermal, hydroelectric and renewable, gave their all to meet the needs of the people to use electricity, and now with these tired and not overhauled turbines, they welcome the cold days of the year; an inevitable cycle from heat to cold and worry about electricity outages in the summer and gas outages in the winter; But turbines need fuel to continue operating, gas is the best answer to this need, and if it is not available, diesel and fuel oil must enter the field out of necessity.

The tank of power plants is full for winter

On the other side of the story, we should not ignore the efforts of the country's energy supply officials, which have been in the middle of summer for months, to keep the fuel tanks of the power plants full. 82% of the diesel capacity and 84% of the diesel fuel capacity filled the power plants.

The statistics that Masoud Moradi, the deputy director of production of the country's thermal power company, put on the table in an interview with economic reporter Sefir Arjan, assures that a specific fuel basket is foreseen for the continuation of electricity production, and the wheel of power plants will continue to turn in the winter with the timely and balanced distribution of these alternative fuels in the event of gas shortages and outages.

He emphasizes that the power plants are not out of alignment and we will not have any problems in the production and supply of electricity, and even the major repairs of the power plants are progressing in such a way that all the power plants are not undergoing overhaul at the same time and will enter the overhaul circuit in order.

Along with all these measures to welcome the cold season, one issue should still be considered as an effective factor: the cooperation of people as consumers of gas electricity. The deputy director of production of thermal power company believes that as much as people move towards using optimization solutions, without a doubt, the fuel and energy supply process will be more stable.

The storage of 3.2 billion liters of diesel fuel for the winter fuel of power plants, the turbine wheel of these electricity producers welcome the cold season with such tanks, this strategic statistic declares Moradi.

The footprints of hot summer to welcome cold days

Although there is still time until the arrival of the cold days of the year and another winter experience, we cannot ignore the performance of the power plants to leave the summer behind and prepare for November and December and continue the winter. The recording of 98.8% performance and the emergency exit of only 1.2% of Iran's power plants in the days when the country's electricity supply infrastructure had survived war and attacks on facilities, presents an acceptable record of the country's thermal power industry.

In these days when electricity consumption had reached its peak, the practical power of the power plants in electricity production reached 59 thousand 234 megawatts and the daily production of 1.3 billion kilowatt hours was recorded, so that it can be said that the power plants remained active and stable with the power of domestic engineers to become a symbol of national self-reliance and show the ability of Iranian experts in providing electricity.

Even at the same time, the main repairs of the power plants were going on and the optimization of more than 110,000 megawatts of these units was done; Turbine inlet air cooling projects were implemented in Ferdowsi power plant with 90 MW, Soltanieh Zanjan 60 MW, Rashid Tarbiat Heydarieh 30 MW, and Parand 90 MW, which increased the production capacity in the heat of summer.

Renovation of the cooling towers of Ramin Ahvaz, Isfahan and Isfahan power plants and the construction of diesel storage tanks were also on the agenda during the peak days of summer heat in order to ensure the stability of production and resource management for the cold days of the year.

However, it must be accepted that if the forces of the electricity industry were not active day and night with the turbines of the power plants, did not return the damaged facilities to the production circuit, and did not endure the hot moments of the summer days to keep the lights on the houses of their compatriots, these achievements would not have been recorded.