TEHRAN – Iranian Ministries of Energy and Industry, Mining and Trade are going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) within a week for collaboration in constructing 13 power plants for industrial units across the country.

“This week or during the next week, a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the two ministers of industry and energy to start the construction of 13 power plants for industrial units across the country,” Deputy Industry Minister Saeed Zarandi told Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

“Since earlier this year, the Industry Ministry, on behalf of the industrial sector, started seeking a permit for building 13 power plants. We held several meetings with Tavanir [Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company] and the Energy Ministry and proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the ministry. We also sent a letter to the Energy Ministry last week to expedite the issuance of the permit,” Zarandi explained.

According to the official, the mentioned power plants are financed by 12 investors from various industrial sectors and will be constructed within 2.5-3 years.

The official noted that the power plants will have a total capacity of about 10,536 megawatts (MW) whose output will be used by the mentioned industrial units.

As reported, the said power plants will be constructed in Isfahan, Hormozgan, Markazi, Yazd, Kerman, Fars, Semnan, and Khuzestan provinces.

One of the main goals of this program is to provide reliable and sustainable electricity to high-consuming industries and the country’s industrial parks in order to reduce the pressure imposed on the national grid in the industry and mining sector, according to Zarandi.

“If these power plants are built, a significant load will be removed from the national electricity distribution network,” he stressed.

The official further noted that in case of any surplus electricity generation, the industrial units can sell the surplus electricity to the Energy Ministry.

EF/MA