Iran first power producer of Middle East: Official
Iran is currently the Middle East’s top country in terms of power generation with over 85 gigawatts of installed capacity, said the deputy head of Iran Electricity Industry Syndicate.
Payam Baqeri said the electricity industry is a productive and strategic industry that is considered a infrastructure for several other sectors and is a prerequisite to their development, IRNA reported.
In this regard, Iran is considered one of the most advanced countries in the region in terms of electricity industry, he said.
According to Baqeri, the electricity industry has great potentials for exports due to its proper capacities and domestic production of almost all the equipment needed in this industry.
The official noted that the country’s electricity industry was not able to grow proportionally to its capacities over the past few years due to certain problems and obstacles.
Iran’s total power generation capacity currently stands at about 85,500 gigawatts most of which is supplied by thermal power plants.
With a total generation capacity of 25,083MW (nearly 31 percent), combined-cycle power plants account for the lion’s share in the country’s total power generation capacity followed by gas power plants generating about 30 percent.
The share of hydroelectric power plants is 19.87 percent while hydroelectric plants generate 14.8 percent of the country’s total electricity, the share of dispersed generation units is 1.5 percent and finally the renewable power plants account only for 0.79 percent of Iran’s total power generation capacity.
Iran’s electricity exports to its neighbors increased in the past two years as the country has been synchronizing its electricity grid with that of the neighboring countries.