Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.2/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran currently has the capacity to annually export 10,000 megawatt hours to neighbouring countries, the deputy energy minister said on Thursday.
It's predicted that Iran's power exports will increase 40 per cent this year compared to the previous year, the IRNA News Agency quoted Mohammad Behzad as saying.
Iran has exported one billion dollars' worth of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, Behzad said in October.
Iran exported a total of five billion kilowatt hours of electricity to neighbouring countries in the first half of the current year, the IRNA News Agency quoted Mohammad Behzad as saying.
The amount shows 51 per cent increase compared to the same period previous year, he explained.
Iran plans to export 6000 megawatt hours of electricity to India and Pakistan, Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou said in October.
According to Namjou the technical teams from the Islamic Republic of Iran and India will hold meetings to draw up plans for the export of 4000 megawatt hours of electricity to India and 2000 megawatt hours to Pakistan.
Iran seeks to become a major regional exporter of electricity and has attracted more than $1.1 billion in investments for the construction of three new power plants.
Iran's installed power generation capacity is currently about 67 gig watts (GW), Energy Minister Majid Namjou said.
The Energy Ministry plans to increase the electricity generation capacity by 5GW this calendar year which ends on March 20, 2013.
Last year, Iran exported 8.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to its neighboring countries and the figure is projected to hit 10 billion kilowatt hours, he noted.
By the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016), Iran will boost its electricity generation capacity by 25GW to reach 73GW, Namjou said on February 7.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.