TEHRAN – Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir), in collaboration with the Iranian Fuel Conservation Company (IFCC), is going to implement a program for installing 3,000 megawatts (three gigawatts) of renewable power plants for agricultural wells across the country, Mehr News Agency reported.

According to Tavanir's Operator for Rural Electricity Expansion Program Ali Chehel-Amirani, there are currently 100,000 agricultural wells in the country that use diesel fuel to pump water and construction of these renewable power plants will save huge amounts of fuel in addition to supporting the power grid.

The water pumps in each agricultural well consumes an average of 11,000 liters of fuel per year, and connecting these wells to renewable energy sources can be effective in preserving the environment, helping the electricity grid, preventing fuel smuggling, and boosting renewable energy-related industries, Chehel-Amirani said.

The official noted that the power plants will be constructed by the private sector and will be paid for by the resources coming from fuel savings in accordance with the article 12 of the law on the elimination of barriers to production.

Following the increase in the electricity consumption by the agricultural sector in the current years due to the water shortage and drought, Tavanir and IFCC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on June 13 to collaborate for installing PV stations for the agricultural wells.

Based on the mentioned MOU, which was signed by Tavanir Head Mohammad-Hassan Motevalizadeh and head of IFCC Ali Mobini Dehkordi, farmers are not going to pay any price for the mentioned stations and all the costs are covered by the mentioned entities.

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MOU, Dehkordi noted that under the framework of this memorandum, PV stations will be installed for 60,000 agricultural wells over a three-year period.

“In the first phase of this program, 11,000 wells are scheduled to be provided with renewable energy sources,” the official said.

Following the signing of the mentioned MOU, Tavanir issued a call for identifying contractors interested in supplying equipment and installing and operating solar power plants in rural areas across the country with a total capacity of 3,000 MW.

In the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease of rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new strategies in recent years to manage the power consumption in various sectors and lessen the electricity losses in the national grid.

EF/MA