TEHRAN - Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) has started a program for decommissioning worn-out thermal power plants, IRIB reported on Saturday, quoting the company’s head.

“Currently, the decommissioning of two power plants is on the agenda, and we hope that the decommissioning operations for Rey and Tarasht power plants will begin this year,” Mohsen Tarztalab said.

According to the official, the program is aimed at increasing the average efficiency of the country’s power plants.

“The efficiency of old power plants is less than 20 percent," Tarztalab said.

Underlining the company's plans for increasing the efficiency of the country's power plants, he said: "The Ministry of Energy has paid special attention to the optimization of power plants’ fuel consumption in the last decade and since the beginning of [the Iranian calendar year] 1392 (March 2013), the program for converting gas units into combined-cycle units was kicked off and the relevant contracts were signed with private sector investors.”

According to the official, TPPH has signed deals with the private sector for converting 4,000 megawatts (MW) of gas units into combined cycle plants.

"Currently, more than 3,500 megawatts of these units have either been put into operation or will be inaugurated this year," he said.

The TPPH head mentioned the 20-percent reduction in fuel consumption of power plants by improving the efficiency of thermal power plants, saying: “By converting gas power plants into combined-cycle plants the efficiency of these units will increase from about 33 percent up to 50 percent.”

Back in May 2019, MAPNA Group’s Managing Director Abbas Aliabadi said that six percent of the country’s thermal power plants were turned into combined cycle plants in order to reduce greenhouse gases and save energy.

“The conversion of a thermal power plant to a combined cycle one takes about one to two years, however, it is possible for us to convert all the country’s thermal power plants into combined-cycle plants over a five-year period,” Aliabadi said.

EF/MA