Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 20 / Trend, A.Yusifzade /
Iran exported 5,357 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity to its neighboring states from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (that started March 21, 2010), BENA reported.
The amount shows 7.15 percent increase in comparison to previous year's amount.
Iran also increased its electricity imports from pervious year's figure of 1,827 GWh to 2,705 GWh during the mentioned time span. The figure shows a 48.08 percent increase in Iran's electricity imports.
Iran's electricity network has been integrated into the power grids of some neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, and Turkmenistan.
Iran exported more than 5.5 billion kWh of electricity to neighboring countries during the past Iranian year (March 2009 - March 2010).
Iran is the 19th largest producer and 20th largest consumer of electricity in the world.
Earlier, Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou said Russia, India, Qatar, the UAE, Jordan, Syria and Oman are the new countries demanding electricity from Iran.
According to the minister, Iran has the capability to turn into a regional exporter of electricity.
The minister also stated that Iran has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investment to build three new power plants.