Baku, Azerbaijan, May 30
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
The Islamic Republic of Iran has exported ten billion kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity to regional countries over the last Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), an Iranian deputy minister said.
Houshang Falahatian has said that currently Iran exchanges electricity with Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Turkey, ILNA news agency reported.
Addressing a two-day conference on energy in Tehran, the deputy minister said that the ministry has installed facilities with a capacity for producing 37,000 MW in its power plants over the last several years.
The official further predicted that the country's capacity for generating electricity will reach 100,000 MW by 2020 from the current 74,000 MW.
Iran and Azerbaijan plan to connect their electricity networks. The two countries signed a MoU on electricity swap last December, which envisages linking the two countries' power networks and exchange of electricity.
According to Mahmoud Vaezi, Iran's ICT minister, the connection of Iranian and Azerbaijani power networks will also lead to linking them with Russian and Georgian electricity networks.
Early in February Azerbaijani Minister of Energy Natig Aliyev said that Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia are working on the establishment of the North-South energy corridor among the three countries.