BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
As many as 44 water and electricity facilities have been commissioned in 14 provinces of Iran with an investment of more than 141 trillion rials (about $3.35 billion) since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2020) to date, Minister of Energy of Iran Reza Ardakanian said, Trend reports citing the ministry.
He made the remark via videoconference on July 16 at an event dedicated to the commissioning of several facilities in the Hormozgan Province (southern Iran).
Ardakanian emphasized that more 209 facilities worth 360 trillion rials (about $8.57 billion) will be commissioned by the end of the current Iranian year.
The minister added that all this shows that the Iranian economy does not fully rely on daily oil exports.
The minister noted that the electricity consumption in Iran was recorded at 57,681 megawatts July 21, 2019. On July 9, 2020, 58,647 megawatts electricity was consumed.
Ardakanian said that in the previous years, electricity consumption has been increasing by 5 percent on average yearly, so the country had to make up for the deficit by investing $2.5 billion into building a 3,000-megawatt power plant to keep up with the consumption jumps.
"Although the consumption is growing in Iran, electricity production is also increasing. Thus, Iran's electricity production increased by 4-4.5 percent both last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020) and current Iranian year (began March 20, 2020)," he said.
The minister said that there were no problems with electricity supply in Iran last Iranian year, as the country's electricity exports have increased.
Today 20 water and electricity facilities worth a total of 26.6 trillion rials (about $635 million) were commissioned in Hormozgan Province (southern Iran).
Iran's electricity exports increased by 27.6 percent in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020) compared to the preceding Iranian year (from March 21, 2018 to March 21, 2019). Thus, Iran exported 8.31 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to neighboring countries in the last Iranian year.