Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.16/ Trend, F. Milad
Between the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2012) and January 16, Iran exported over 8.974 gigawatt hours of electricity to neighboring countries.
The amount shows a 34% increase in comparison to the same time period during the previous year, the IRNA News Agency reported.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Nakhchivan and Iraq.
The managing director of the Iran Power Generation Transmission and Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR), Homayoun Haeri, announced on December 15, 2012 that Iran currently trades 12.3 gigawatt hours of electricity with neighboring countries.
Iran plans to boost electricity cooperation with Persian Gulf states, he said.
Haeri had previously said that Iran will have exchanged up to 15 billion kilowatt hours (BkWh) of electricity with its neighbors by the end of the current calendar year (March 19, 2012), which is up 50% year on year.
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 electricity generation capacity by 5GW this calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013.
Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou had said previously that by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016), Iran will have boosted its electricity generation capacity by 25GW to reach 73GW.