Tehran, Iran, November 4
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
A European company is going to build two sets of power plants in Iran, according to a contract worth US$6 billion.
The contract covers the construction of four combined-cycle power plants with an output of 3,250 megawatts and a wind farm with an output of 1,000 megawatts.
The European company is likely to be Belgium's Unit International SA, Tasnim news agency reported on November 4.
The locations of the combined-cycle power plants will be Mianeh, Aras, Tabriz in northwestern Iran, and Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan.
However, no location has yet been designated for the wind farm, but the company is reportedly looking forward to building two wind farms with an output of 300 megawatts each in Ahar and Sarab in the northwestern province of East Azerbaijan.
The contract has a limited term of five years. The project is expected to produce 17,429 million kilowatts of power per year, saving the equivalent of 17.5 million cubic meters of water for that amount.
Iran currently uses wind farms with a total output of 14,000 megawatts, and officials say this needs to increase by 40,000 megawatts.
Iran's peak power consumption hit 50,000 megawatts per hour during the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21.
Several power plants in the country, with the capacity to produce 74,000 megawatts of electricity, are still waiting to become operational.
If these power plants go online according to plan, Iran will see a boost of 5,000 megawatts in power output each year. However, many of the projects are not progressing as they should, due to financial problems.