Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.10 /Trend F.Milad/
Iran plans to generate 12,000 megawatt hours of electricity on Qeshm Island in order to export it to the Persian Gulf region's Arab countries, the managing director of National Iranian Offshore Oil Company said on Monday.
Iran plans to make Qeshm Island an electricity hub in the region, the Mehr News Agency quoted Mahmoud Zirakchianzadeh as saying.
He went on to note that Qashm Island has enough gas supply to generate electricity for 30 years.
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 GW.
The Energy Ministry plans to increase electricity generation capacity by five GW this calendar year which ends on March 20, 2013.
Last year, Iran exported 8.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to its neighbours 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.