Iran's power plants generated more than 177 terawatt hours (177,000 gigawatt hours) of electricity during the time period from March 20, 2009 (beginning of the current Iranian calendar year) to December 30, 2009.
The amount shows a 3 percent increase in comparison to the previous year's figure, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Some 172,000 GWh of the mentioned amount have been produced from Thermal power plants and other 5,000 GWh from the hydropower plants.
private power plants boost output by 22%
Iran's electricity output in privately-own power plants has soared by 22 percent reaching 14,440 megawatts over the past ten months, Press TV reported.
Power plants run by the private sector have produced eight percent of the energy consumed in the country this Iranian year, which ends in March, ILNA News Agency reported on Friday.
Last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2009), the private sector managed to produce a sum of 11,784 megawatts of electricity, which could account for six percent of the energy used nationwide.
Iran's population growth has increased the demand for the power source over the past thirty years. It is expected that the demand would soon surpass the supply, therefore the Iranian government is pursuing a nuclear energy program to meet the country's electricity demand.