TEHRAN - A combined cycle power plant with the capacity of 648 megawatts (MW) was inaugurated on Wednesday in Zanjan Province, northwest of Iran. 

 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the inaugural ceremony, the IRNA News Agency reported.

 

The project started in 2009. Over 90 percent of the used equipment has been manufactured by Iranian experts.

 

More than 4.5 trillion rials (some $370 million) has been invested in the project. The power plant’s capacity is projected to increase to 1000MW in the future.

 

Iran ranks the first in the Middle East in terms of electricity generation, an official with Iran Power Development Company said on Monday. 

 

Mahmoud Dashtbozorg told the IRNA News Agency that the country is the 15th largest electricity producer in the world.

 

The Energy Ministry will roll out power projects that will increase Iran’s electricity generation capacity by 5 gigawatts (GW) this calendar year, which began on March 20, said the deputy energy minister on April 3.

 

Mohammad Behzad said that over 10 GW should be added to the generation capacity of hydroelectric and thermal power plants by August 2013, the last month of President Ahmadinejad’s administration, the Fars news agency reported.

 

Iran has indigenized the technology for developing thermal and combined cycle power plants, the director of the TAVANIR said on February 27.

 

Abbas Aliabadi told the Mehr news agency that Iran exports power plant technical and engineering services to different countries and said that Iran is currently building seven large power plants in Syria, Oman, Iraq, and Tajikistan.

 

By the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2015), Iran will boost its electricity generation capacity by 25GW to reach 73GW, Energy Minister Majid Namjou said on February 7.

 

Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.