Baku, Azerbaijan, May 21
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's power industry is currently facing negative balance of payments.
Alireza Ahmadi Yazdi, Iranian Power Generation Transmission and Distribution Management Company's (TAVANIR) Director for Consumption Affairs, said Iran earns about $2.3 billion annually through selling electricity, while about $8.3 billion is needed annually to expand the industry, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on May 21.
The US dollar official exchange in Iran is currently 25,550 rials.
"The industry sector accounts for 38 percent of the country's power consumption," he noted. "Some 213 trillion rials should be invested to increase the power generation capacity by 6 gigawatts."
Iran exported 1,033.5 gigawatt hours of electricity to neighboring countries from the beginning of the current calendar year (March 21) until April 30.
The figures show a 5 percent increase compared to the same period of time previous year.
Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmoudi said in November 2013 that Iran annually exports 8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to neighboring countries.
According to Iran Energy Ministry's annual report, The country imported 3.718 billion KWh of electricity from northern countries, mostly from Turkmenistan (67.4 percent) and Armenia (30.9 percent), while it exported 11.774 billion KWh to six neighboring countries, mostly to Iraq (68.2 percent) and Turkey (20.4 percent).
Mahmoudi went on to note that Iran's production capacity has surpassed 70,000 megawatt ( or 263,000 GWh).
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.
The Islamic Republic trades electricity with Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.