Tehran, Iran, July 25
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad, A. Shirazi - Trend:
Payam Baqeri, head of Export Committee of the Iranian Power Industry Union, said connecting Iran’s electricity network to Russia would pave the way for the export of the country’s power to the European Union.
“Currently, there are two transmission corridors with the help of which we can export electricity to Russia and the EU,” Baqeri told Trend on July 25.
He added that the first one is the corridor of Azerbaijan-Georgia and the second one is Armenia-Georgia transmission route.
The official further said that the Iranian government has taken the first route into consideration for the potential transmission.
Baqeri said the route would offer many opportunities, including national power network and job opportunities to the countries located between Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and finally, the EU nations.
“The power transmission from Iran to Europe is important to the EU as well as its energy commissioner raised the issue during his visit to Tehran two months ago,” he noted.
The officials of the two sides are seriously pursuing the issue and carrying out technical studies, he said, adding that such projects are usually time-consuming but not unlikely.
Baqeri also referred to the volume of Iran’s power export and said, “Iran is currently exporting 1400-1500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, mainly to Iraq”.
He added that Iran’s power export to the Arab country is not like before due to domestic demand.
Iran's electricity industry ranks 14th in the world in terms of output and 19th in terms of consumption.
The country is the largest exporter and importer of electricity in the Middle East and exports power to Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan. Azerbaijan and Armenia supply electricity to Iran under swap agreements.
Iran's installed power generation capacity is around 77,000 megawatts, over 62,000 MW of which comes from thermal power plants that burn fossil fuels along with hydropower plants (12,000 MW), Bushehr nuclear plant (1,000 MW) in south Iran, distributed generation stations (1,500 MW) and renewables (less than 500 MW).
The government aims to bring online 5,000 MW of new power output capacity annually through 2022, the end of Iran's Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.