Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.3 /Trend F.Milad/
Iran, Iraq and Syria have linked their national power grids , Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad said on Monday.
Iran exports $5 million worth of electricity and technical and engineering services annually to its neighboring countries, Behzad said, the Mehr News Agency reported.
According to a contract signed by Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, Tehran has to annually export 2200-2500 megawatt hours of electricity, worth over one billion dollars, to the mentioned states.
"Synchronizing the power grids of Iran, Iraq and Syria with that of Lebanon will make the biggest electricity network in the Muslim World," Behzad said.
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 gigawatts (GW).
The Energy Ministry plans to increase the electricity generation capacity by 5GW this calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013.
The energy minister said on November 25 that by implementation of two hydroelectric power plants in near future, Iran's installed power generation capacity will reach 70 GW.
The private sector will soon start the construction operations of three power plants, the Mehr News agency quoted Majid Namjou as saying.
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 25 GW to reach 73 GW, Namjou said on February 7.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Namjou said on November 20 that Iran will start exporting electricity to Lebanon in near future.
"Exporting electricity to Lebanon is one of the energy ministry's top priorities," he said.
India will also build a new power plant in Iran in order to import electricity from the country.
"Iran plans to export 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity to India and Pakistan," Namjou said.
The proposed power plant has the capacity to produce 6,000 megawatt hours of electricity. India will imports 4,000 megawatt hours and some 2,000 megawatt hours will be exported to Pakistan.
Namjou had said earlier in November that the Iranian energy ministry allows the private sector to construct power plants and export electricity.
"The private sector can sign contracts with other countries and the energy ministry will provide the electricity," he said.
...