TEHRAN – Iran and Armenia will start building the third electricity transmission line between the two countries by the next one and a half month.

Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Yervand Zakharyan, met Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour in Yerevan. During the meeting, the two sides agreed that the work on building the third electricity transmission line to be completed by 2018, the IRIB reported on Friday.

The project is expected to cost 107.9 million euros, which the Iranian side will allocate as a loan.

Once the project comes on stream, it will almost triple electricity exchange between the two neighboring countries.

At present, Iran and Armenia exchange over one billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

Iran plans to triple its annual electricity exports from the currently 8 billion kilowatt hours to 25 Bkwh by the next three years, according to Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian. 

Falahatian said the country puts priority on the neighboring and regional countries as the main destinations for electricity exports. 

Iran currently exports electricity to Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan (including the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. 

By having the generation capacity of 68.38 gigawatts, Iran is the country with the highest amount of electricity generation in the Middle East and North Africa.