Baku, Azerbaijan, May 24
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran plans to add 5,865 megawatts (MW) to its electric generation capacity by the end of the current fiscal year (March 2019).
The combined-cycle power plants will have the highest share from the added capacity, followed by gas power plants. Over 960 MW of the added capacity during the current fiscal year will fall on renewable energy.
Since the beginning of the current year (March 20, 2018) the country’s power generation capacity has increased by 201 MW to 78,685 MW, according to a report released by the country’s energy ministry.
Gas power plants (24,636 MW) share 31.3 percent of the generation capacity. Meanwhile the shares of combined-cycle (23,326 MW) and steam power plants (15,829 MW) account for 29.6 and 20.1 percent, respectively.
Nominal electric generation capacities of hydroelectric plants (11,881 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 0.46 percent or 364 MW.
Iran plans to increase its nominal electric generation capacity to 100,000 MW by 2025, 1,000 MW of which should be produced from solar energy.
The ministry report also said that, Iran's power plants generated over 40,923 GWh (gigawatt hours) of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21) until May 11.
Iran’s thermal power plants produced 39,835 GWh of electricity in total during the reporting period, while 1,088 GWh of the country's total electricity accounted for hydroelectric and wind power plants.
Iran’s electricity export reached 1,028 GWh from the beginning of the current fiscal year to May 11, registering a fall by 5 percent year-on-year, meanwhile, the country imported 536 GWh of electricity during the period, registering a 17-percent fall compared to the same period of the preceding year.
Households consumed 33 percent of Iran’s generated power (84,682 GWh) during the last fiscal year (ended March 20), while the industry sector and agriculture sectors’ consumption from the country’s electricity generation stood at 32.8 and 15.4 percent, respectively.
Street lighting and commercial consumption accounted for 1.8 and 7.4 percent of the overall consumed electricity in the period.
The length of Medium-Voltage Lines of Iran’s distribution network is 424,000 kilometers, while the length of Low-Voltage Lines stands at 362,000 kilometers.
Number of the country’s transformers is 686,000 with overall capacity of 118,830 megavolt-amperes.
During the current fiscal year (March 20 to May 11) Iran has delivered 8,973 million cubic meters of natural gas to power plants, 6 percent more year-on-year, while the diesel supply to this sector hiked by 585 percent to 603 million liters.
The Iranian power plants also consumed 288 million liters of fuel oil in the period, 231 percent more year-on-year.