TEHRAN – As announced by the Iranian deputy energy minister, 6,100 megawatts (MW) was added to the country’s electricity generation capacity in the past Iranian calendar year 1401 (ended on March 20).

While elaborating on the electricity sector’s achievements in the past year, Homayoun Haeri, the deputy minister for electricity affairs, said that the mentioned 6,100 MW was generated through the construction of new power plants with the capacity of 4,150 MW, upgrading the capacity of existing units by 1,350 MW, and rebuilding 600 damaged units.

The official also announced that the rise in power generation efficiency of power plants, which increased to 39.1 percent, was another record registered last year.

Back in January, an official with Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Company (TPPH) announced that with the inauguration of a new thermal power plant in southwestern Iran, the nominal capacity of the country’s power plants exceeded 90,000 MW.

According to Mohammad Ramezani, the deputy head of the company’s projects development department, the mentioned power plant which has been constructed with €250 million of investment in Khuzestan Province, is comprised of a 307-MW gas unit and a 144-MW steam unit.

Most of Iran’s power generation capacity is supplied by thermal power plants. Currently, combined cycle power plants account for the biggest share of the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants.

Increasing the country’s power generation capacity and preventing blackouts during peak consumption periods have been among the Iranian Energy Ministry’s top priorities since the current government administration took office in 2021.

In August 2021, Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian announced that his ministry was planning to boost the country’s power generation capacity by 35,000 MW over the next four years.

The mentioned figure would be achieved through the construction of thermal power plants with 15,000 MW of capacity, and renewable power plants with a capacity of 10,000 MW by the governmental and private sectors, as well as the construction of new power plants with 10,000 megawatts capacity by large industries.

Over the past decade, constant temperature rising and the significant decrease in rainfalls across Iran have put the country in a hard situation regarding electricity supply during peak consumption periods.

In this regard, the Energy Ministry has been following new programs to meet the country’s power demand during peak periods and to prevent outages.

Constructing new units in the country’s power plants and also building new power plants for major industries are among the mentioned programs that are being pursued seriously by the ministry in collaboration with other related government entities.

MA