Iranians' inefficient power consumption costly: energy minister

TEHRAN, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian warned that poor electricity consumption habits of Iranian people inflict hefty economic losses on the country, Financial Tribune daily reported Thursday.

Ardakanian said the nation's rate of electricity consumption rises by 5-7 percent or 5,000 megawatts each year, forcing the energy ministry to provide new facilities to compensate for the shortages, which will cost some 600 million U.S. dollars.

Ardakanian added that the amount is spent on building new power plants to meet the 150-200 hours of consumption during summer peak.

He underlined the need to overhaul consumption patterns and raise public and organizational awareness, instead of trying to find new energy sources.