The third steam unit of Parand Combined-Cycle Power Plant in south Tehran was connected to the national power network on Thursday, raising total production capacity to 83,800 megawatts, deputy minister of energy said.
"The new unit adds 160 MW to the national grid to support high demand in summer," Homayoun Haeri was quoted as saying by IRNA.
MAPNA Group, Iran's top engineering and energy conglomerate, constructed the $160 million plant in four years. The plant can now operate at full capacity.
According to the official, Parand Power Station, consisting of three steam units each of which is connected to two gas units, has a total capacity of 1,503 MW.
“The new (steam) unit has an efficiency rate of 50% and will help stabilize power supply to industrial units around the sprawling capital city.”
Frequent power outages in industrial towns (namely Abbasabad Industrial Town, 50 km southeast of Tehran) adversely affected industrial units, taking a toll on electrical equipment and reducing efficiency in 2018 and 2019 during the peak hours of summer.
Located 30 kilometers southwest of Tehran, the plant also includes air cooled condenser (ACC) system, a 400 kv substation and a 35-km transmission line.
The first and second steam units became operational (each costing $150 million) in November 2017 and August 2018, respectively.
He said one priority of the power industry is to convert gas or heater units into combined-cycle plants.
Saving Natural Gas
According to Haeri, the three steam units in Parand will help save at least 855 million liters of liquefied fuel (mazut or diesel) per annum or 850 million cubic meters of natural gas per year.
A combined-cycle power plant uses both gas and steam turbines to produce up to 50% more electricity from the same fuel than a traditional simple cycle plant. The waste heat from the gas turbine is sent to a steam turbine, which also generates electricity.
“The plant does not use underground water resources, as it is equipped with ACC technology, which reduces water consumption (from 46 liters per second to 4.5 liters per second) by using wastewater."
Referring to ongoing projects, he said work on converting Assalouyeh Power Plant (Bushehr Province) and Ferdowsi Power Plant in Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi Province, into combined cycle is proceeding as planned.
Mapna Group is involved in the development and execution of thermal and renewable power and has a key role in improving and expanding the key power industry.
Sewer Network
In related news, IRNA said three wastewater treatment plants opened in southwest and west of Tehran Province on Thursday.
The new treatment facilities (first phase of Malard wastewater plant, Safadasht plant and the second phase of Eslamshahr wastewater treatment plant) recycle 15,000 cubic meters of effluent per day for use in farms and industrial units.
Wastewater treatment plants in and around western and southern Tehran have a total capacity of 80,000 cubic meters per day, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian was quoted as saying by the state news agency.
“Of the 9,000 kilometers wastewater network designed for the capital, close to 7,000 km of sewer pipelines have been laid over the last decade to collect and treat wastewater in Tehran”, but less than 50% of the city’s wastewater can be recycled because of lack of treatment plants.
“We are working on the Firouz Bahram Wastewater Treatment Plant in the west, which is the second largest in the country after the South Wastewater Treatment Plant,” the Mapna added.
Firouz Bahram plant is scheduled to come online by 2021 and will be used by 2.8 million people.
A total of 220 wastewater treatment plants are operating in Iran and total sewage treatment capacity has reached 11 million cubic meters per day.
