TEHRAN – Iran plans to connect its national power grid with Russia and the Persian Gulf states, energy ministry caretaker said here on Saturday.

ILNA News Agency quoted Hamid Chitchian as saying that, “currently Iran’s national power grid is connected to Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.”
“We plan to connect our power grids to Russia via Azerbaijan as well as linking to the Persian Gulf states via sub-sea cabling,” he added.
“We are planning to connect the national power grid to new countries within the next two years,” he noted.
According to Chitchian, Iran currently exports electricity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Turkey.
Iran’s electricity export faced 123 percent increase in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2009).
Iran is among the top ten manufacturers of gas turbines with a capacity of 160 megawatts. Iran has acquired self-sufficiency of over 80 percent in constructing hydraulic turbines and over 90 percent in producing gas turbines.
Within the next few years, Iran can join the list of countries that produce power plant technology. Iran has achieved the technical expertise to set up hydroelectric, gas and combined cycle power plants.
Iran is not only self-sufficient in power plant construction but has also concluded a number of contracts on implementing projects in neighboring states. A research by the Ministry of Energy indicated that between 15,000-20,000 megawatts of capacity should be added in Iran’s electricity production in the next 20 years.
Iran ranks 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of electricity in the world