TEHRAN - Head of Iran's Power Generation, Distribution, and Transmission Company (known as Tavanir) Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi has said the country’s Energy Ministry plans to construct new power plants with a total capacity of 22,000 megawatts (MW) across the country, IRNA reported on Friday.

Stating that in the past three years, up to three billion dollars have been invested annually in the electricity industry, Rajabi Mashhadi said: “the construction of 22,000 megawatts of new power plants, half of which will be renewable, has been targeted.”

According to the official, the mentioned power plants, including 12,000 MW of renewable power plants and 9,000 WM of cycle power plants, should be commissioned within the next three years.

Statistics indicate that Iran’s generation of electricity during the administration of the late President Ebrahim Raisi registered a 13.5 percent growth, with Iran generating more electricity than industrialized countries like the UK and Italy.

Recent statistics released in a report on “Statistical Review of the Global Energy” show that Iran generated 382.9 terawatts/hour of electricity in 2023, registering a 4.3 percent hike compared to a year earlier.

Iran had generated more than 367.1 terawatts/hour of electricity in 2022.

The growth of Iran’s generation of electricity in 2023 was nearly twice that of the average growth of the generation of electricity in the world.

The report put the total generation of electricity worldwide in 2023 at more than 29,924 terawatts/hours, which was 2.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

Iran’s generation of electricity in 2023 exceeded that of industrialized countries like the UK, Italy, and Spain as well as Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand, the report added.

EF/MA