Tehran, Iran, Nov. 12
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iran plans to synchronize its electricity grid with the European countries through Russia, Deputy Director of Iran Power Generation Transmission & Distribution Management Company (TAVANIR) Gholamreza Khoshkholq said.
He said that the country is in negotiation with the Russians, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported on Nov. 12.
"If the two countries agree to connect their power grids, Iran's electricity network will get connected to that of European countries," he said.
Khoshkholq went on to note that Iran trades electricity with all neighboring countries.
"We just export electricity to Iraq, but we don't import any power from the country," he said.
Deputy Energy Minister Esmaeel Mahsouli said on October 8 that Iran plans to trade 500 megawatt of electricity with Russia.
"Based on the agreement, Iran will import the mentioned amount in summer, and export the same amount in winter."
The electricity will be transferred through Azerbaijan. Tehran also plans to trade 200 megawatt of electricity with Azerbaijan.
"We will start with trading 100 megawatt and eventually increase the figure to 200 megawatts," he said.
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 country currently trades power with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.
Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmoudi said in November 2013 that Iran annually exports 8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to neighboring countries. The mentioned figure is about 3 percent of the country's total output, he said.
Iran's production capacity has surpassed 71,000 megawatt hours.