Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
According to the Iranian energy ministry, Iran's power plants generated over 286.891 TWh (terawatt hours) of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2017) until Feb. 16.
The output was almost 7 percent more compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Iran’s electricity export increased by 20 percent to 7.63 TWh from the beginning of the current fiscal year to Feb.16, according to the ministry data.
Meanwhile, Iran imported 3.71 TWh of electricity during the period, registering a 8-percent fall compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Iran’s thermal power plants produced 272.295 TWh of electricity in total during the reporting period, while 14.596 TWh of the country's total electricity accounted for hydroelectric power plants.
The nominal electric generation capacity of the country has increased by 1,915 megawatts (MW) to 78,343 MW since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year.
Gas power plants (27,532 MW) share 35.14 percent of the generation capacity. Meanwhile the shares of combined-cycle (20,270 MW) and steam power plants (15,829 MW) account for 25.87 and 20.2 percent, respectively.
Nominal electric generation capacities of hydroelectric plants (11,811 MW) and Bushehr nuclear power plant (1020 MW) are equal to 15.1 and 1.3 percent of electric generation capacity, while the share of renewables stands at only 0.41 percent or 322 MW.
The country is expected to add 1,249 MW to its electric generation capacity by March 2018 - of that 632 MW will be renewables’ share.
Iran plans to increase its nominal electric generation capacity to 80,000 MW by summer 2018, and to 100,000 by 2025, 1,000 MW of which should be produced from solar energy.
Households consumed 34.9 percent of Iran’s generated power during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20 - Nov. 21, 2017), while the industry sector and agriculture sectors’ consumption from the country’s electricity generation stood at 30.4 and 16.1 percent, respectively.
Street lighting and commercial consumption accounted for 1.6 and 7.4 percent of the overall consumed electricity in the period.
The length of Medium-Voltage Lines of Iran’s distribution network is 420,000 kilometers, while the length of Low-Voltage Lines stands at 359,000 kilometers.
Number of the country’s transformers is 675,000 with overall capacity of 117,018 megavolt-amperes.
The country increased gas delivery to its power plants by 12 percent to 60.91 billion cubic meters, while gas oil supply to this sector decreased by 14.5 percent to 4.4 billion liters in the mentioned period.
The Iranian power plants also consumed 3.43 billion liters of fuel oil in the period to Feb. 16, 10.4 percent less year-on-year.