TEHRAN - With 4,827 megawatts (MW) capacity of new power plants going operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2020), the country’s power generation capacity is going to reach 85,695 MW, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

Iran’s nominal electricity generation capacity which stood at 80,311 MW at the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2019), has currently reached 80,868 MW.

As reported, the added capacity since the beginning of the current year, was supplied from the newly operational distributed generation power plants, combined-cycle power plants, as well as renewable plants.

According to the report, a 51-MW increase in power generation capacity at distributed generation plants (DG and CHP), a 39-MW increase in the capacity of renewable power plants, and 467 MW of new capacity in the country’s combined-cycle power plants increased the total power generation capacity by 557 MW.

Currently, with a total generation capacity of 25,083 MW (31.2 percent) combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share in the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants generating 29.9 percent.

The share of hydroelectric power plants is 19.87 percent while hydroelectric plants generate 14.8 percent of the country’s total electricity, the share of dispersed generation units is 1.5 percent and finally the renewable power plants account only for 0.79 percent of Iran’s total power generation capacity.

In early May, the energy ministry announced that the government plans to inaugurate 22 new power plant units with a total capacity of 3,933 MW in the current Iranian year along with upgrading and increasing the efficiency of existing power plants to add another 461 MW of new capacity.

EF/MA