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Iran, India to discuss electricity exports

Iran Materials 1 February 2012 11:43 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 1/ Trend M. Moezzi

Iranian and Indian representatives will meet soon to discuss the sale of 5,000-6,000 megawatts of electricity to India, Mehr News Agency quoted the energy ministry official as saying.

The sale of electricity to India depends on the building of power stations in South Asia, Mohammad Behzad, deputy energy minister, said.

Its targeted subsidy program has driven down the electricity use by 10 percent in Iran, freeing up power that can be exported. The Iranian government pays each citizen $45 a month as compensation for eliminated commodities and energy subsidies.

So far this year, Iran has exported more electricity to its neighbors in the region than ever before (Iran's solar year ends in March). It sold 6,700 gigawatt hours (GWh) of power to other countries. This is 26 percent more than exports for the same period of last year.

New power plant projects helped push up Iran's power production capacity to 65,000 megawatts with expected 3,000 megawatts next year.

Without counting the electricity use in the country in summer, Iran expects to have 15,000 megawatts stored in its power network and half of it has been set aside for export to Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

These exports, along with the plans to sell power to Lebanon, the countries on the Persian Gulf's borders and India, are all part of a common strategy to make Iran an energy hub in the Middle East.

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