TEHRAN -- The Iranian Economic Council issued a directive for the allocation of some $6.5 billion forex financial facilities for the construction of new power plants in the country.

The allocated sum will be used to build five new dams and power plants and implement projects for generating 5,050 megawatts in the existing power plants, the Islamic Republic’s administration website dolat.ir reported.
Elsewhere, the First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said that by transferring the country’s forex accounts to safe countries we have been able to receive 3-8 times more than the initial deposits in financing which we have allocated to various development projects.
Meanwhile, Iran’s electricity exports have increased by six percent from the beginning of current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2010).
According to a statement released in mid-December by Iran’s Energy Ministry the country has exported 4,630 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to its neighboring states during the period. The report didn’t specify the exact date this period covered.
Iran also increased its electricity imports from 1,632 GWh to 2,373 GWh during this time span. The figure shows a 45.34 percent increase in electricity imports.
Iran’s electricity network has been integrated into the power grids of seven neighboring countries, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
The country exported more than 5.5 billion kWh of electricity to neighboring countries during the past Iranian year, IRNA reported.
Iran is the 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of electricity in the world.
Earlier this year, Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou said Russia, India, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Syria and Oman are the new countries demanding electricity from Iran.
According to the minister, Iran has the capability to turn into a regional exporter of electricity.