TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated five water and electricity projects worth over $210 million in three provinces during the 18th week of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program, IRNA reported.

Inaugurated through video conference in a ceremony held in Tehran, the mentioned projects included a dam, a power station, two small-scaled solar farms, and some electricity transmission lines.

As reported the said projects were put into operation in Ardebil, East Azarbaijan, and Kermanshah provinces in the west and northwest of the country.

With the mentioned projects operational, a total of 1.7 megawatts (MW) has been added to the country’s solar power generation, 310 MW to the capacity of the combined cycle power plants, and 21 million cubic meters was also added to the storage capacity of the country's dams.

The solar power plants, one with a capacity of 0.2 MW and the other with a capacity of 1.5 MW were inaugurated in Ardebil province.

The 0.2 MW power plant with a cumulative electricity output of 326,000 kWh is going to save 0.11 million cubic meters of natural gas consumption annually and emit 274 tons of carbon dioxide.

The 1.5 MW solar power plant with a cumulative output of 244,000 kWh will save 0.85 million cubic meters of natural gas, and also prevents the emission of carbon dioxide equivalent to 2056 tons per year while saving 655 cubic meters of water in the year.

The 310-megawatt gas unit of Dalahou Combined Cycle Power Plant in Kermanshah Province was also among the inaugurated projects, which was put into operation with a total investment of 109 million euros (about $130 million).

Kalghan Chai dam in the city of Bostanabad in East Azarbaijan was the third project inaugurated via video conference in the presence of Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian.

With a total capacity of 21 million cubic meters, the mentioned dam was constructed with 13.2 trillion rials (about $31.4 million) of investment.

30 million persons to enjoy free electricity

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony, President Rouhani announced that the directive for the implementation of a program to award free electricity to 30 million low-consuming persons will be referred to the Energy Ministry over the next two months.

"This program, which will be implemented in the next two months, is a gift from the government to the people of our country, especially the residents of the villages, who are mainly among the low-consuming households,” Rouhani said.

EF/MA