More than 140 parts and equipment have been indigenized at the Neka Power Plant in Mazandaran Province since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 21), the managing director of the plant said.
“Of the total 5,195 parts manufactured at the plant by the local experts and engineers in the past five months, 142 items were manufactured for the first time,” IRNA quoted Hossein-Ali Taziki as saying.
“The total number of indigenized parts at the plant in the past decade exceeds 2,000 items and more than 80,000 parts have been manufactured in the station in the period,” he added.
Located 25 km north of Neka City, the 2,214-megawatt plant is one of the largest of its kind in Iran. It has a steam power unit, four steam turbines, a combined-cycle power facility, two gas units and a steam unit. The plant became operational in the early 1980s.
Earlier this year, the first indigenized triple screw pump used in power plants was installed at the Neka Power Plant.
Considering the fact that the units of the power station are in operation for over four decades, some of the plant’s parts and equipment are worn out and need to be replaced.
However, following the harsh US sanctions on the country in the past few years, Iran has been unable to import certain equipment such as screw pumps from foreign countries.
The United States slapped tough economic sanctions after the twice-impeached president, Donald Trump, unilaterally abandoned the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. The sanctions, particularly on energy, banking, insurance and shipping sectors, bar US companies from trade with Iran. Foreign firms are not spared.
A problem of thermal power plants in Iran is that many have long outlived their usefulness. Power plants built decades ago are still in service, largely due to the government’s inability to replace them under the difficult economic conditions.
Localized Know-How
Therefore, local experts and specialists made efforts to gain the know-how to manufacture a triple screw pump through reverse engineering and finally succeeded in making the part and successfully installed it in the steam unit of Neka Power Plant.
So far, only a few countries have had the technology of making such pumps, including Sweden, Germany, the US and the UK, but now Iran has also acquired it.
Within the power generation sector, screw pumps are commonly found in applications such as bearing and gear lubrication, high pressure fuel injection, fuel forwarding, jacking oil and hydraulic power for hydro plant control.
A screw pump, also known as a water screw, is a positive-displacement pump that uses one or several screws to move fluid solids or liquids along the screw(s) axis.
Screw pumps operate using two counter-rotating screw rotors that are engineered so that they rotate “toward each other”. This traps the gas in the space between the “screws” of their rotors. As the screws rotate, this trapped volume decreases, which not only compresses the gas but moves it toward the exhaust.
The knowledge and technology of manufacturing power plant equipment were previously monopolized by the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Japan, but now Iran has joined the top five countries with this technology.
Iran can now produce steam and gas turbine blades and compressors 60% cheaper than foreign counterparts. There are 60 rotors in the country that are more than 40 years old and need to be replaced, and this will happen soon with the efforts of domestic knowledge-based firms and manufacturers.
Thermal plants account for 80% of total power output (85 gigawatts) in the country of 83 million people. More than 80 thermal power plants are now operational and over 80% of the parts and equipment used in thermal power plants have been indigenized.
Components made by local companies have been approved by the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran. In addition to upholding national standards, the parts are sent to international institutions for tests and verification.
