Iran's first privately owned combined heat and power plant (CHP) officially came on stream in Tehran on Tuesday.
The plant's production capacity is 7.8MW and its efficiency is 73 percent, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network reported.
It is while the average efficiency of the countries' plants is about 38 percent.
Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. It is one of the most common forms of energy recycling.
Conventional power plants emit the heat created as a by-product of electricity generation into the natural environment through cooling towers, flue gas, or by other means.
By contrast CHP captures the by-product heat for domestic or industrial heating purposes, either very close to the plant, or as hot water for district heating with temperatures ranging from approximately 80 to 130 °C. This is also called Combined Heat and Power District Heating or CHPDH. Small CHP plants are an example of decentralized energy.