Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq has reported that a new Iranian electricity supply line has started operations, carrying 100 MW of imported electricity from Iran. The new line is aimed at meeting the 550 MW of power demanded by Wasit province, in the centre of Iraq. The province currently only receives less than 150 MW from Iraq’s national grid, and consequently suffers from regular electricity blackouts.

 

Iran has been involved in a number of recent electricity export deals, with the country reported last month to have agreed to export 50 MW of power to Lebanon to help the country meet summer power demands. The country’s ministry of electricity and energy, in late 2011, said that Iran’s energy exports would exceed U.S. $1 billion by March of this year.

 

An Iranian Energy Ministry official had said recently that Iran’s electricity exports to four neighboring countries have increased by 40 percent since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20, 2012).

 

Abdolhamid Farzam, the Energy Ministry official in charge of foreign exchanges, said that Iran’s power exports to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey have seen a major boost in the past two months.

 

The official stated that new power transfer lines and installations have become operational for exporting electricity to Iraq, raising Iran’s electricity exports to its western neighbor to 1,200 megawatts (MW).

 

Farzam added that electricity exports to Pakistan have been more than doubled in the same period, saying Iran’s capacity to export electricity to Pakistan has increased from 30 MW in winter to 70 MW right now.

 

He said Iran is exporting an average of 30 MW of electricity to Afghanistan, while power exports to Turkey have increased from 110 MW to more than 170 MW.

 

The official stated that Iran will increase its power export capacity to Turkey to 500 MW in the next few days.

 

On May 10, Iran’s Energy Ministry published a report saying that the country’s electricity exports to its neighboring countries have increased by more than 38 percent since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year compared to the previous year.

 

The report added that Iran has exported a total of 1,347 gigawatts per hour (GW/h) of electricity to the neighboring countries during the aforementioned period, up by 38.57 percent compared to the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 19, 2012).

 

Iran, which seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity, has attracted more than USD 1.1 billion in investment to build three new power plants.
 

(Source: utilities-me.com)