TEHRAN – Iran’s Energy Ministry plans to increase the capacity of the country’s hydroelectric power plants by 150 megawatts (MW) by the beginning of Iranian calendar’s next summer (June 21, 2019), IRNA reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the energy ministry has foreseen an 8000MW power shortage at the peak consumption periods in the next summer for which they intend to compensate by adding new thermal, hydroelectric and renewable power plants along with managing consumption.

Iran also plans to add 598 MW of new renewable power plants to the country’s current 650MW by the mentioned date.

The country’s current nominal power capacity is near 80,000MW of which the share of hydroelectric power plants is 19.87 percent while gas power plants generate 31.41 percent of the country’s total electricity, the share of combined cycle power plants is 29.48 percent, hydroelectric power plants account for 15 percent of the total capacity, while the share of dispersed generation units is 1.62 percent and finally the renewable power plants account only for 0.79 percent of Iran’s total power generation capacity.

EF/MA