Energy ministry intends to make Iran the region's electricity hub, and the Iranian private sector can be the best partner for achieving the set goal, while the target is challenged due to the presence of rivals in the region, Trend reports citing Mehr.
Iran has the potential and is aimed at becoming West Asia’s electricity hub and to act as a bridge between East and Europe for transmitting electricity relying on its huge energy resources, skilled manpower, and advanced facilities.
The country’s total electricity exports vary depending on the hot and cold seasons of the year, but electrical communication with neighboring countries continues.
Electricity generated by Iran's power plants in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (March 2019- March 2020) reached 328 million megawatt-hours, registering a growth of 1.6 percent compared to the previous year. Out of 322 million MW of electricity produced in the country in the said period, 8.029 million MWh was exported to 7 neighboring countries, which is equivalent to 2.5 percent of the total electricity produced in the country.
Presently, electricity exports have become the only source of foreign exchange revenue for the Ministry of Energy, with synchronization of power grids with the neighboring countries as a major focal point of the ministry.
According to reports, Iran's electricity exports in the current year (2020) have reached 436 million kWh, indicating a 19-percent increase compared to the previous year and showing that the positive trend of Iran's electricity exports continues.
The country's electricity network has been synchronized with Iraq, while the electricity networks of Russia and Azerbaijan are the next in line for becoming linked with the Iranian grid in the coming months. Affiliated negotiations are also underway with Qatar.
The governments of Jordan and Iraq, Iran' major customer, signed a contract on 27 September for the construction of a transmission line link between the two countries that will enable Jordan to deliver up to 1TWh per year of electricity to Iraq during the project’s first phase – with the potential of ramping up power exports further in the future. Geopolitically, however, Jordan's distance from the population centers of Iraq is much greater than Iran's distance from these population centers located in the east of Iraq.