TEHRAN - An official at Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) said the electricity generation capacity in the country’s thermal power plants increased by over 965 megawatts (MW) in the previous Iranian year with the assistance of domestic knowledge-based companies.

The electricity generation capacity of Iran’s power plants increased by more than 965 MW last year with the implementation of projects to boost the power of gas-fired and combined-cycle power plants and remove restrictions in the steam power units in cooperation with the local knowledge-based companies, Esmaeil Namazi said.

The Thermal Power Plants Holding Company inaugurated several new power plants in the previous Persian year and came up with plans to raise the electricity generation capacity of the existing power stations, he added, according to IRNA.

He noted that projects to generate over 2,000 MW of electricity have been implemented across Iran since the current administration assumed office in August 2021.

The director of Iran Power Plant Repairs Company (IPRC) said in February that Iran is the forerunner in West Asia in the field of repairing thermal power plants.

The nominal capacity of Iran’s power plants reached 92,055 MW in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), according to the latest data released by Iran Grid Management Company (IGMC).

As reported, the capacity of the country's gas power plants, which account for 25.3 percent of the country's total power generation capacity, also increased by 3.1 percent to 23,330 MW in the past year.

The total capacity of renewable power plants also increased by 20 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 1,120 MW.

Most of Iran’s power generation capacity is supplied by thermal power plants. Currently, combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share of the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants.

The total capacity of the country’s thermal power plants stands at over 72,000 MW, according to the Thermal Power Plant Holding.

Increasing the country’s power generation capacity and preventing blackouts during peak consumption periods have been among the Iranian Energy Ministry’s top priorities since the current government administration took office in 2021.

In August 2021, Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian announced that his ministry was planning to boost the country’s power generation capacity by 35,000 MW over the next four years.

The mentioned figure would be achieved through the construction of thermal power plants with 15,000 MW of capacity, and renewable power plants with a capacity of 10,000 MW by the public and private sectors, as well as the construction of new power plants with 10,000 megawatts capacity by large industries.

According to Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company (IWPCO), the company is also constructing new hydropower plants with a total capacity of 4,000 MW across the country.

The IWPCO Deputy Head Mashallah Tabe’-Jamaat said on Sunday that the company is also conducting preliminary studies for the construction of 1,200 MW of new hydropower plants.

Over the past decade, constant temperature rises and the significant decrease in 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 programs to meet the country’s power demand during peak periods and to prevent outages.

Constructing new units in the country’s power plants and also building new power plants for major industries are among the mentioned programs that are being pursued seriously by the ministry in collaboration with other related government entities.

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