TEHRAN – Near 60 percent of Iran’s thermal power plants are running by the country’s private sector, Mehr news agency reported on Friday quoting a Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) mananger.

According to Gholamreza Mehrdad, General Manager of Generation Technical Support at TPPH, the country is currently 90 percent self-sufficient in producing the equipment for constructing power plants.

“We are currently moving towards complete self-sufficiency in this field.” He said.

The official further noted “we have become completely self-sufficient in the fields of operation, overhaul and maintenance and now we do not need any foreign work force or knowledge in the country’s power plants regarding these areas.”

Pointing to the fact that over 95 percent of Iran’s electricity is supplied by thermal power plants, Mehrdad noted that the country's thermal power generation capacity has increased by five percent this year.

Iran’s current nominal electricity generation capacity stands at about 80,000 megawatts.

Of the total nominal capacity of the country's power plants, the share of hydroelectric power plants is 19.87 percent while gas power plants generate 31.41 percent of the country’s total electricity while the share of combined cycle power plants is 29.48 percent.

EF/MA