TEHRAN – Iran’s Energy Ministry plans to add 3440 megawatts (MW) capacity of new power plants to the country’s electricity network during the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2017- March 20, 2018), IRNA reported on Monday.

Of the mentioned capacity, 600 MW would be renewable power plants and private sector will also contribute to a part of this provisioned plan.
Iran increased its electricity generation capacity by 2.199 gigawatts (GW), boosting it to 76.302GW, in the past Iranian calendar year 1395 which ended on March 20, according to a report by the Iran Power Grid Management Company.
Natural gas power plants accounted for 75.5 percent of the increased generation capacity, equaling 1.66GW, IRNA previously reported.
Combined cycled power plants, hydroelectric power plants, distributed generation power plants, and renewable energy power plants also accounted for 14.6 percent, 3.4 percent, 5.7 percent, and 0.9 percent of the total rise in the country’s electricity generation capacity, respectively, the report added.
Iran ranks currently the first in the region and 14th in the world in terms of electricity generation capacity.
In January 2016, Deputy Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said that over 95 percent of the country’s power transmission equipment are domestically built, adding that Iran is also self-sufficient in manufacturing its power distribution equipment.

EF/MA