TEHRAN – Some 3,864 megawatts (MW) capacity of new power plants are planned to be added to Iran’s electricity network by the next summer’s peak consumption period, IRNA reported, quoting the Managing Director of Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) as saying.

Speaking in TPPH’s general assembly on Sunday, Mohsen Tarztalab noted that last year (March 2018-March 2019) over 1,200 MW capacity of new thermal power plants were inaugurated across the country.

“Thermal power plants have had a significant share of the country's energy production over the past few years, so that last year, more than 92 percent of the country’s electricity needs was supplied by thermal units,” he said.

According to the official, the country’s thermal power plants are more and more leaning toward using cleaner fossil fuels like natural gas.

“The amount of natural gas used by power plants has also increased over the past few years, so that currently over 90 percent of the country’s thermal power plants are powered by natural gas,” he said.

He further noted that following a development initiative foreseen in the country’s Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) the average efficiency of the country’s power plants will increase 2.1 percent from the current 37.9 percent.

The nominal capacity of electricity generation at Iranian power plants currently stands at nearly 85,000 megawatts [84.795 gigawatts (GW)].

Iran’s total power generation capacity stood at 80,000 MW in the past Iranian calendar year 1397 (March 2018-March 2019), up from the 78,484 MW of its preceding year.

According to a report by Tasnim news agency, the country’s power generation capacity is set to reach 85,695 MW by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2020).

Currently, a total of 478 thermal power plants are operating throughout Iran which include both gas power plants and combined cycle plants. 

With a total generation capacity of 25,083 MW (nearly 31 percent) combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share in the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants generating about 30 percent.

EF/MA