Ahmad Mortazavi, the head of the Energy Committee of the Expediency Discernment Council, at the meeting of the Research Council of the Ara Research Center, emphasized the urgent need for energy consumption management and reforming its allocation system. He considered the energy imbalance in the country to be due to a combination of issues including weaknesses in optimizing consumption and structural problems in governance and pricing.
Energy Imbalance Status
Mortazavi pointed out that the assessment of the realization of the general energy policies indicated that the realization of policies related to gas production capacity was about 83 percent, while this figure in the area of consumption optimization was only about 17 percent. This imbalance in the implementation of energy policies has raised serious concerns.
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Challenges Ahead for Gas and Gasoline
The head of the Energy Committee of the Expediency Discernment Council stated that estimates show the country may face a gas imbalance of at least 400 million cubic meters per day, adding: "The reduction of gas supplied to industries and power plants will have broader economic impacts." Mortazavi also referred to the gasoline situation, saying: "The country's gasoline production capacity is about 110 million liters per day, while the average consumption reaches about 134 to 135 million liters per day."
He emphasized that consumption management and the development of monitoring tools should become one of the main pillars of energy policy. He also stressed the need to revise the allocation of gas among different sectors and stated that limited energy resources should be allocated in a way that considers national interests and its economic impacts.
Mortazavi identified fragmented policymaking and structural inefficiencies in consumption management as some of the root causes of problems in the energy sector and emphasized the need to strengthen monitoring systems and intelligent consumption management. In conclusion, he considered consumption management to be the most urgent and practical solution to overcome the upcoming challenges.
During this meeting, the present experts called for avoiding deferring the resolution of problems to other institutions and emphasized the need for a change in governance methods and more effective use of existing institutional capacities. They believe that alongside warnings about existing limitations, the groundwork for activating new initiatives and solutions should also be provided.
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