Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.8 / Trend R.Zamanov /
Iran will inaugurate 26 power projects in the capital Tehran in near future, Morteza Bahadori, an official with the Great Tehran Electrical Distribution Company said on Sunday.
"The projects will come on stream at the cost of 600 billion rials ($181.34 million dollars based on the rate of USD at the free market)," the Mehr News Agency quoted Bahadori as saying.
"Currently five mega projects are ready to be inaugurated," he said adding that once the projects come on stream the capital's power network would become more optimized.
Bahadori went on to note that over 60,000 new subscribers have been connected to the national power grid in the current calendar year, which started on March 21.
The energy ministry announced earlier that a number of renewable power plants with capacity to produce 500 megawatt hours of electricity will be connected to the country's national grid by next year.
Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad said in July that Iran has constructed power plants twice as many as the average number of power plants which have been constructed in the world during the past decade, The Mehr News Agency reported.
The power generation capacity in Iran has grown by 7 percent annually during the past 10 years, he said, adding that the figure has averaged 3.5 percent in the world.
The country's power generation capacity is currently at 68.38 gigawatts, he added.
Iran currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
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.
Five phases of South Pars gas field will come on stream by the end of the Iranian month of Shahrivar (September 22), the Iranian oil minister said on Friday.