TEHRAN – Some 28 energy projects worth over 5.53 trillion rials (about $131.6 million) were inaugurated in two provinces in the 33rd week of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program, IRNA reported.

In a ceremony attended by the Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, the mentioned projects including three scattered power plants, five small-scale power plants, 16 power supply projects, and several network modification and optimization projects were put into operation in Tehran and Gilan provinces.

Of the mentioned projects, 25 were inaugurated in Tehran province and three others were in Gilan province.

As reported, the mentioned projects have been put into operation with the aim of increasing the reliability of the electricity network, reducing unwanted blackouts, supplying electricity to the Mehr housing projects, and increasing the country’s electricity generation capacity.

A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), during which the minister made 31 trips to various provinces for inaugurating over 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion).

Since the beginning of the second phase of the scheme in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20), every week several energy projects have gone operational across the country.

Earlier this month during the 31st week of the A-B-Program, Ardakanian said: “In the second phase of the program 250 projects are going to be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021) of which so far 154 have gone operational.”

The official noted that a total of 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) of investment will be made in the mentioned 250 projects.

EF/MA