Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 7 / Trend F.Milad/
Iran will exchange up to 15 billion kilowatt hours (BkWh) of electricity with its neighboring countries by the end of the current calendar year (March 19, 2012), up 50 percent per year, Iran power generation transmission and distribution management company (TAVANIR) managing director Homayoun Haeri stated.
Iraq and Turkey have many exchanges of electricity with Iran, Homayoun Haeri was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.
The country is currently exchanging electricity with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Nakhichevan, Turkey and Turkmenistan and plans to add 5,000 megawatts of capacity to its power grid annually.
Iran's total power generation capacity stands at 63,403 megawatts (MW) while total length of the power grid exceeds 780,000 kilometers.
Exchange of electricity with neighboring countries reached 1,341 MW in late December 2010. The top exporter was Armenia with 237 megawatts, and the top importer of Iranian electricity was Iraq with 650 megawatts.
Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments to build three new power plants.